Elemental Beauty: Phoenix
by Dovahkiir2015
Summary: Everyone is scattered to the winds after the events of Civil War. Naturally, old enemies take advantage of this, rising from the ashes, and going after old assets, those who aren't as well defended as they once were. Bad summary, but pretty much, shit hits the fan. What else is new? T to be on the safe side, there is some mild language abuse. Among other things.
1. Chapter 1

I'd been in Wakanda for a while now, helping T'Challa where he needed it. Which wasn't that often, really. He had so many other people to help as he needed. But I guessed that having an elemental on your side doesn't always go unnoticed and can come in handy sometimes.

As usual, I was sitting in his sister's lab. That kid was a genius and had so many fun toys. Hardly a day went by that we weren't discussing different things to do with tech. She was surprised at how fast I got to understand the technology that the Wakandans had, even more surprised when I started making suggestions that confused even her. It would be fun to put her and Tony in a room together. Just the thought of Tony still made me feel a little uncomfortable. I knew how much I meant to the guy, knew I was like a daughter-figure for him. Some kind of… what's the word… protégé? Something like that.

At any rate, he'd probably moved on. Found another kid to look after. Not that I was really a kid anymore, just had the mentality of one some of the time. Alright, most of the time. Not my fault I was half Asgardian and so aged slower. I leaned closer to inspect my work, squinting slightly, cursing my glasses as they slipped down my nose slightly…

Just as the wiring sparked, some of the little, overly hot sparks hitting my nose, getting my fingers.

"Shit!" I leaned back too fast, ending up falling off my seat and hitting the ground, hard, landing on my side. For a moment I didn't move, didn't even breathe, then released an angry sigh, pushing myself into a sitting position, folding my legs and glaring up at my workbench.

"Can't be nice to me for _one day_ , can you, you stupid piece of –"

"Plum still beating you?" Shuri taunted as she entered the room, grinning almost too much. I glared at her, holding my arm up so she'd help me to stand. She crossed over and did as I'd implied, waiting with that annoyingly smug grin on her face as I dusted myself off.

"That bot doesn't always beat me," I muttered, touching my eyebrow, which still had a rather nasty cut on it, "And when it does, I get my own back."

"Sore loser." She taunted, darting out of my range as I scowled.

"That robot isn't meant to beat me up quite as much as it does," I growled, "I didn't program it to try to kill me, just hit me."

"I didn't do anything!" Shuri objected.

"Uh-huh. There's a tonne of coding in there that isn't mine. True, not designed to kill me, but still designed to fight me more nastily than what I programmed it to do."

"T'Challa also uses your bot! Maybe he did the programming!"

"I have _never_ seen T'Challa fighting Plumbum, not to mention it's your signature all over the coding," I half smiled, shaking my head slightly, "And before you tell me I needed a challenge, I was trying to guilt trip you." I turned back to the desk I'd borrowed and sighed, blowing a strand of blonde hair out of my left eye before another sigh escaped me. I sat back down and picked up a soldering iron again, going back to work. Shuri didn't move away. Usually she did when I started working again, but I wasn't too concerned, continuing working as though there was nothing out of the ordinary. We stayed silent for maybe two minutes before Shuri spoke again.

"When was the last time you went to visit Sergeant Barnes?" She asked, taking me by surprise and almost causing me to burn myself as I jumped slightly. I only just managed to get my hand out of the way in time, turning on my chair to throw the girl an incredulous look.

"What?"

"Well, you used to visit him reasonably frequently when he got out of stasis, and now you don't go visit him so much."

"Yeah, because I have too much to do." I muttered, turning away before she could see that I was blushing, putting my head down and once more trying to concentrate on my work.

"Not really, nothing that no one else couldn't do," Shuri commented, "So?"

"So… what?"

"When was the last time you visited him?" I sighed, staring dumbly at the motherboard I was looking at. Eventually I shook my head.

"Lost track," I admitted, "Two, three weeks maybe?" I pushed my glasses up my nose with one finger, getting back to work.

"Why?"

"I told you, Shuri. I've been too busy. With everything that happened with your brother, with getting Plum working, with trying to sort out PARROT –"

 _"Did someone call?"_ The AI I'd made asked, making me sigh and hang my head again, Shuri grinning. She knew how much the AI could annoy me. I wished I could say that T'Challa's little sister had something to do with it, but PARROT was made before I started living with the Wakandans.

"No, PARROT, no one called. You were being mentioned in passing."

 _"It's rude to talk about people behind their backs, you know."_

"You're not a person, you're a computer."

 _"Well aren't you rude."_

"No ruder than you are." I muttered, Shuri laughing in the background. She then crossed over to me, a slight bounce in her step.

"We should go for a ride." She said, too cheerfully. I looked at her suspiciously.

"Where to, and in what?"

"Flying!" She exclaimed, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "And it's a surprise!"

"You're taking me to see Barnes, aren't you?" She shrugged, leaning on my desk.

"Maybe, maybe not." Another sigh escaped me, and I looked back at Plum's arm, my eyes unfocussed. I needed a break. I hadn't slept in three or four days, and the coffee was starting to wear off. I probably looked like shit, but Shuri was being polite and not saying that. The kid had seemed to take a shining to me. I called her a kid, when her mental age was probably about on par with mine.

"Why do you want me to see Barnes so badly?" I asked, still staring at the insides of the robotic arm before me. For a moment it seemed like Shuri wasn't going to answer.

"I think having someone he knows around every now and again will help him," I couldn't help but laugh, confusing Shuri, "What?" I smiled, shaking my head.

"Barnes and I don't actually know each other very well, and what we do know is from back when we were both…" My voice trailed off and the smile slid from my face, "When we were both… Uh…" I cleared my throat, "When we were both working for the wrong people," I finished, looking up at her, shaking my head, "I'm probably the last person he'd want to see right now."

"Is that why you've been staying away?" Shuri asked, seeming confused. I shrugged.

"If that's what you want to believe, sure."

"Come _on_ , Ty!" Shuri whined, "Just go and see him!"

" _If_ I go and see him, that's an if, not a when, then it'll be on my own. No offence."

"None taken," Shuri thought for a moment, then started walking off to get back to her own work, "Would it influence your decision if I told you he's been asking about you?"

My whole body tensed, heartrate quickening. I hated that. From the sniggering I heard, Shuri hadn't failed to notice my reaction.

"Shut up." I grumbled before she could say anything.

"You're as bad as T'Challa." She taunted. I shook my head, silently laughing slightly.

"No idea what you're on about." I called back, then went back to work as best I could. Despite no longer having external distractions, I couldn't concentrate. Why the hell would Bucky be asking after me… Though I wouldn't put it past Shuri to have told me that simply to get a reaction out of me. If that was her plan, then damnit, it was working.


	2. Chapter 2

I took one of their flying things which I was still a little uncertain about what to call, so I just referred to as jets, and headed to visit Barnes in his little hideaway. As usual, there were kids bugging him, though he didn't really seem to mind so it probably wasn't really bugging exactly. He was wearing Wakandan style clothes in red, his back to me, one kid hanging on his remaining arm. I suddenly wished I had a camera, the scene bringing a small smile to my face as I crossed over, hands in my pockets.

I was still wearing typical European clothes most of the time, pale blue jeans that were probably getting a bit too worn out, holes forming in the knees, and a white, semi tight-fitting t-shirt, my hair loose and coming to just below my shoulders, my fringe getting in my eyes. For once Barnes' hair was looking tidier than mine, which made for an interesting change. The truth of the matter was that he looked to be in a much better condition than I did, though I had made sure to caffeinate before I flew myself over here.

"You're looking happier." I called, Barnes looking up in surprise at my voice, his arm falling to his side, the kid looking vaguely disappointed, but grinning when he saw me, running over to annoy me instead, throwing his arms around my waist and almost sending me falling back, the world spinning for a moment. I hid it as best I could, laughing. The kid asked me in Wakandan if I had any treats for him. I had to shake my head, letting him down gently that I'd forgotten to raid my chocolate stash before coming over. He looked disappointed again and I mock-sighed, acting reluctant as I pulled out a decent sized block of the stuff, telling him to share it with the others. He grinned and ran off, the other children scurrying after him. I watched for a moment, hair getting blown into my face, Barnes making his way over to me.

"You look like shit." He said, and I raised an eyebrow at him, regretting it when pain shot across my face, grimacing slightly and lifting a hand to touch the cut, which had a butterfly strip on it, but no stitches. I hated needles too much.

"Thanks, nice to see you too." I grumbled.

"You know what I mean," Barnes gave me a slightly exasperated look and I shrugged, "When was the last time you slept?"

"I could ask you that exact same thing, _Mom_." I muttered.

"Alright, point taken." Barnes half smiled, then motioned that we should walk. I shrugged again and started walking, scuffing my sneakers on the ground as I went, not too bothered about getting them dirty, watching the little dust clouds I created. For a while we didn't say anything, just listening to the kids and the birds. I wasn't entirely sure why I was even there, let alone what to say. Needless to say, the silence was actually rather uncomfortable, leaving me itching for something, _anything,_ to happen and break it.

"So what have you been up to the past month or so?" Barnes asked, and I finally looked up and around at the area, avoiding eye contact with Barnes, though he seemed to be content to be watching where he was going.

"Making a robot, fighting with a computer, getting beaten up when the robot and computer ganged up on me. You know. The usual," I half smiled, "Not like I've had more than enough fun fighting conscious computers that like to fight or anything." Barnes scoffed.

"You seem far too happy about getting into fights." He said, not sounding unamused. I shrugged.

"What can I say? One of the most wanted people on two planets, what else am I meant to do with my free time?"

"That how you got your face all cut up?"

"Shuri got her hands on the coding."

"Ah, that explains it."

"Yup." We fell back into silence, and I doubted Barnes even had a small idea about what to talk about. To anyone else we would have seemed completely normal, just a couple of people walking in silence. To someone trained to recognise subtle changes in activity, like I was, it was clear that Barnes was still uncomfortable. He could probably read that I was as uncomfortable as he was. He stopped walking, still watching me. I took a couple more steps before turning to face him.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to keep my voice semi neutral, leaning my head to the side slightly.

"Come on, Tyra, it doesn't take a genius to know that something's wrong," I gave a wry half smile and looked away, biting my lower lip slightly, "What's going on?"

"Nothing I can't handle."

"Tyra –"

"I said it's nothing." I snapped, glaring at him. He glared back slightly, eyes unwavering. We were as stubborn as each other, and we both knew it. I looked away first, turning and looking across the lake we stood next to, watching a flock of some kind of water bird taking off.

"Dreams?" He asked eventually. I nodded.

"Among other things."

"You know you can talk to me about them." His voice was gentle, sincere. I shook my head, looking down slightly at the edge of the water, a few rushes sticking up out of it. I could feel the insects flying around the water surface, could feel every movement all around. It was almost relaxing, so serene, despite the headache my powers were giving me. My fingers started tracing the gems on the armbands Thor had given me to help control my abilities, the vague headache fading before becoming almost non-existent.

"You've been making progress," I muttered, "If I start bringing up things that happened with Hydra then that might all go out the window."

"Or it might help both of us."

"You don't get it, do you Barnes?" I turned my head to face him, cursing how the shadows cast on his face were doing nothing but enhancing his features, "My primary concern is helping you get to the stage where you can go back into the world without Hydra following you like a shadow. What Hydra made me do is my concern. I won't risk you getting worse just so I can get a load off my chest," I looked away again, slowly releasing a breath, "Besides, currently the dreams aren't my biggest concern."

"Then what is?" He frowned slightly, also looking out over the lake now, but only for a moment before looking back at me. I tucked my hair behind my ear, but part of my fringe still fell in my eyes.

"Haven't heard from my brother in ages." I explained.

"Which one?"

"Either of them." I could see his frown deepen from the corner of my eye.

"Can't get T'Challa to check on Dale?"

"He's already gone looking. Can't find him. I've tried getting in touch with Steve, nothing on that front yet. He'll show up eventually. I can actually do something to help him if there is something wrong. It's Thor I'm more worried about."

"He's in space," Barnes told me, as if I didn't already know that, "It can't be easy to get you messages."

"It is when you have access to the Bifrost." I rolled my eyes, then shook my head. By now the sun was starting to set, turning the sky a red-gold.

"You don't have to be here, you know." Barnes muttered, almost too quiet for me to hear. I frowned, turning and looking at him with a confused look on my face.

"Why do you think I don't want to be here?" I asked, "Because of my brothers? I made my choice, Barnes. If I had the chance to go back and change things, I wouldn't. I'd stick by my choice to help you every single time."

"Because that turned out so well for you." I sighed yet again before closing the gap between us slightly and looking up at him, a serious expression on my face.

"I did what I thought was right," I told him, "So did Steve, so did Nat, so did everyone. We're all adults. We can take responsibility for our own actions. If anything, it's my fault this happened in the first place," Now it was his turn to look confused, and I just shrugged, "If I'd told Steve that I'd found you in the first place, then maybe things wouldn't have gone as badly as they did. Frankly, I don't care. Can't change the past, we're all wanted by the UN now. I don't give a damn. I've faced execution at the hands of someone much more powerful than them before."

"You're not the kid that Hydra dragged in, are you." Barnes half smiled, but I could see the sadness in his eyes. I grinned, shoving all the seriousness of the situation out the door and slamming it shut.

"Nope," I told him, "I'm far less annoying now."

"Well that's yet to be confirmed."

"Oh please, when was the last time I annoyed you?"

"When you last visited."

"Really?" I mock frowned, "What did I do?"

"Set the kids on me."

"Oh yeah… you weren't good enough at hide and seek," I shrugged, flicking my fringe out of my eyes, though the wind promptly put it back, "I figured entertaining the kids while I ran away was a good enough punishment." Barnes half a smiled, scoffing slightly, not saying anything. For a moment we just stood there, then I cleared my throat and took half a step back, running my hand absently through my hair.

"I should… probably be getting back," I said, "Headache coming on."

"You've been managing a headache since you got here," Barnes said, not sounding surprised, "Suffering from exhaustion probably isn't helping matters."

"I can't hide anything from you, can I?" I scoffed as we started heading back, not that it was very far to the jet.

"I dunno," He sounded almost conversational, "You're still managing to avoid answering why you still call me 'Barnes', even though I keep telling you to call me Bucky."

"At least I've dropped the Sergeant." I quipped, darting a glance at him.

"Progress. But you know you have called me Bucky before, what changed?"

"So many questions, Mr Barnes! Will I never hear the end of them?" I shrugged, "Would it surprise you if I said I don't remember it?"

"The way your head is, not really," We stopped once we reached the aircraft, Barnes looking up at it before once more looking at me, "Why did you come, Tyra? You've hardly been here ten minutes and you're leaving again."

"Starts with an s –"

"Shuri?"

"Yup. Got it in one. Very impressive. But I'll admit that she was probably right on this one, solitary occasion. I should have visited sooner."

"Tyra Jones admitting she's wrong? Is the world ending?"

"Oh, shut up." I smiled, punching his arm, barely containing a small chuckle.  
"Ow." Barnes complained, evidently not hurt in the least.

"Serves you right. I frequently admit I'm wrong."

"Yeah, once a year."

"Please, I'm not wrong _that_ often."

"I'll let you keep believing that."

"Don't make me hit you again," Barnes chuckled, "Are you laughing at me, sir?" I demanded, mock glaring at him.

"Okay, okay, you win," He held his hand up in surrender, slowly lowering it when I smiled smugly, "It was nice seeing you around again. Most of the people around here don't exactly speak a lot of English."

"Not bothering to try and learn the native tongue?"

"I have been trying, but it's not exactly easy."

"It's not too bad once you grasp the basics."

"Coming from the whizz kid."

"Alright, good point."

"And if you need anyone to –" I held up my hand to silence him, frowning slightly. Something was off. I was used to the Wakandan crafts flying overhead, the feel of the engines in the air, the way the air shifted around them. What I was feeling was different. Barnes watched me closely, frowning at my reaction.

"What is it?" He asked. I shook my head.

"I don't know," I muttered, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say a quinjet, but out here… Why would there be a quinjet out here?" I looked up in the direction I was feeling the change in airflow from, still frowning, my mind working fast.

"You should get out of here." Barnes muttered, following my eyes as a dark speck arrived on the horizon. I shook my head.

"Not happening. Not while there are people still here. I'm staying until we know what's going on."

"Something tells me that's not a good idea."

"My ideas are frequently not good ideas, doesn't stop me from acting on them."  
"When was the last time you had your meds?" Barnes pointed out, "You're not exactly going to be a lot of help if you pass out from a migraine."

"More likely to pass out from sleep deprivation at the moment." Barnes glared at me, but I just shrugged, then leaned casually against craft I'd borrowed.

"Do you ever do as you're told?" Barnes muttered, and I couldn't help but shoot him a lopsided smirk as I folded my arms.

"Not envying any of our friends?"

"Not one bit." We stood there watching as the crafts approached, small frowns creasing our foreheads as we watched it come closer. It was now obvious that it wasn't a quinjet, being slightly too large, slightly to heavily armoured.

"Recognise it?" Barnes asked me. I shook my head.

"No. It's not something S.H.I.E.L.D used, as far as I know, and I don't think that the US army has anything like it. Could be something from another country, but I dunno. Your eyesight is probably better than mine, see any markings?" Barnes shook his head.

"Could just be wrong angle, though."

"Since when have we been that lucky?" I muttered, pushing myself away from my own hijacked vehicle and moving back towards the small group of tents, "We should start moving people to safety, just in case."

"What are you thinking?" Barnes asked, following me.

"I'm thinking we've been found. Somehow."

"The only way that could have happened is if someone told them."

"I am aware." My first thought was Ross, considering he knew I was somewhere around here, but he didn't know about Barnes. Or I didn't think he did. Another option was Steve, but I knew he'd never tell. Ever. Unless he was in trouble, but even then… Steve was like a dog. Loyal to the end. Though I hadn't heard from him in a while… I hoped nothing had happened to him. My frown grew deeper, but I shook my head and shoved the thoughts to the back of my mind. I couldn't afford to be thinking about this right now. For now, my main concern was warning everyone about what was possibly coming, getting them out of here in case it was a hostile attack. We were almost to the small settlement when the first shot was fired, dirt being blown into the air in front of us. I raised my left hand automatically, the next shot hitting a chunk of stone I'd thrown into its path.

"Get everyone out of here!" I ordered, panic already breaking out. Barnes didn't bother arguing, running over and motioning for everyone to get to cover.

Meanwhile, I was doing all I could to make firing upon them more difficult, making myself more of a target. But sleepless nights and my head hurting were making things more difficult for me, and it wasn't long before a shot managed to get past my defences. I solidified the air in front of me, absorbing most of the energy, but still getting sent flying backwards.

"Tyra!" I shook my head and pushed myself once more to my feet as Barnes rushed over, "You okay?" He asked, and I nodded, though I had a graze on my cheek now, having landed on a slightly gravelled patch. Just my luck.

"Yeah," I reached around and pulled out a pistol from the waistline of my pants, handing it to Barnes, "Considering that I doubt you'd run off to safety even if you didn't have a weapon." I muttered, Barnes raising an eyebrow but accepting the weapon, turning to face the craft as it landed, men and women piling out of it, all in dark uniforms, each with a weapon, all wearing helmets. And each one had a red skull with tentacle things around it. Both Barnes and I scowled. Hydra.

"How the hell did they find us?" Barnes growled out, adjusting his grip on the pistol. I shook my head.

"No clue. We could always ask them."

"I'd rather just kill them and get out of here." I didn't respond, just pulled a communication thingy from my pocket and slipped it on behind my ear, activating it.

"Shuri, you there?" I asked, Barnes looking around at me as though I were semi insane. I just silently handed him another device and he slipped it on the same way I had.

" _Ty?"_ Shuri asked, " _We've been looking all over for you, where are you?"_

"Barnes," I could pretty much hear her smirk, "This has nothing to do with the talk we had."

" _Doesn't it?"_

"No," Barnes again glanced at me, confused, and I just shook my head, "Look, Shuri, I kinda hijacked one of your jet things. Need someone to fly it and a bunch of refugees out of here as soon as we get them onboard."

" _What?"_  
"We may or may not be under attack."

" _How?"_ I could faintly hear her moving around the lab.

"Not entirely sure yet," I told her, clicking my neck, "But at the moment it doesn't matter. Barnes and I will get the more helpless to the craft, you just worry about flying them out of here." Barnes and I looked around at each other, Barnes nodding. I took half a step forward and reached out with my hands, my eyes changing to a dull brown colour, the ground rising up and blocking the path between us and Hydra.

"Move. Now." I muttered, Barnes quickly moving the elderly and children towards the craft, occasionally shooting back at Hydra as sparks shot off the craft. Barnes and I shared a look and I gave him a lopsided smiled, he just raised an eyebrow back. The ground dropped from the wall, once more returning to an even surface. An oversized snake of water shot out and I willed it to find its way around some Hydra agents, not only preventing some of them from getting nearer to me, but some of them getting caught in it, their heads being trapped in water bubbles, struggling to breathe.

Whoever was in charge of the craft continued to fire upon the Wakandans, Barnes, and me. A tent nearby exploded, flames leaping up and engulfing it. They then started snaking in the direction of the Wakandan craft, not in a way that could be considered natural. I didn't pay that any heed, immediately drawing my watery snake in that direction. For a while it seemed like the flames would not extinguish, but eventually the flames died out. But only briefly before they once again leapt forward, sweat now beading on my forehead. It was almost distracting, the new water available to me. I knew I was breathing heavily, and I gave up with controlling the water, switching to trying to control the flames that were once more snaking towards the craft, pushing them back and around.

I could feel the will of my opposition, could feel that their control over the flame was stronger than my own. But I hardly had a choice. Earth was hard to control for long periods of time, it was stubborn. Removing the air around the flames could also work, but if I missed even one small ember then we'd be having trouble again, and the amount of air I'd have to remove would be dangerous for the people running around the place. I'd already tried water. This was the last choice I could think of in the short amount of time I had, and this wasn't exactly going well for me.

It was a battle of wills, and my power was broader than whoever I was fighting, their control over fire more precise and much stronger than mine. Already I could feel blood starting to trickle from my nose, but I couldn't do anything to stop it, my sight trained on the snake of fire. It froze, but I couldn't push it back. Everything else faded into nothing as I focused solely on the fire, willing it to turn back, to not move. I could feel its rage. It wanted to leap, jump, spread… feast.

There was also a vague smugness behind it all. Someone knew I couldn't keep this up. Slowly, hesitantly, I reached out to sense the area through the air, trying to identify whoever I was fighting. This slight slip of concentration gave my rival all they needed to progress with the attack, the fire springing forward. I gave up trying to identify them and instead went back to slowing the flames, though this time I couldn't stop them.

My concentration was completely snapped as someone grabbed my hand. I spun around to fight off whoever it was, freezing when I recognised Barnes.

"I got everyone I could on the jet." He told me.

"The hell are you still doing here, then?!" I demanded.

"Because I still have a job to do," I wanted to argue, but I couldn't see how I could, "You alright?" He asked, frowning, and I lifted my hand to the trail of blood, then realised just how close the flames were to us. I stepped in front of Barnes, then a couple of steps further away from him, redirecting the flames so they'd find their way up me instead. I couldn't stop them, but redirection wasn't too difficult. They tried to eat at me, consume my flesh, but nothing happened. They merely spiralled around me as I worked my way back into control, slowly dissipating them until they completely vanished.

By now I knew I looked like shit, wiping at the blood still trickling from my nose, breathing heavily as I looked around for the elemental. It took me a moment for my eyes to concentrate enough to spot him, standing in a group of heavily armed Hydra agents, red hair hanging around his shoulders, goggles obscuring his eyes. He dressed entirely in black leather, decorative flames making their way up his jacket and trouser sleeves. Hydra didn't exactly know how to be discrete with their toys.

"We need to go," I forced out, "Now."

"What about everyone else?"

"They're not after the Wakandans," I stumbled backwards, Barnes moving to support me with his arm, "They want us. We go, they'll follow."

"And how exactly are we meant to get out of here?" I could feel my body already beginning to react to the amount of energy I'd used, my whole body beginning to shake, my vision blurring, but I looked around at the Hydra jet, which was now neatly landed on the ground. Barnes followed my eyes to where I was looking.

"Great. Now how are we meant to get there?"

"I can –" My legs gave way, forcing me to use Barnes for support.

"Not do a hell of a lot right now." He finished for me. I shook my head, reaching out with one shaky hand and shifting the air around. It was more slippery than usual, but it did what I wanted it to. People came stumbling out of the craft, spluttering, struggling to breathe. For a moment Barnes just watched, then I slumped even more. He struggled to adjust his grip on me, then quickly helped me over to the jet. Somehow, we managed to avoid any bullets headed our way, thankfully, because there was no way that I could have managed to stop any of them from hitting us.

It was a struggle for me to get into the seat when we got inside, Barnes taking the pilot's seat. He got us into the air pretty quickly, Hydra still shooting at us, some of them probably swearing at us. That was when I passed out.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up a while later, though I was unsure how long it had been since I passed out, looking around with blurred eyes, blinking slowly as I tried to figure out where it was that I was, trying to remember what had happened exactly.

"You're awake." It wasn't a question, more a statement. I looked back to the pilot's seat, thinking for a moment. Barnes was sitting there, spun around and looking at me.

"Please tell me you haven't been watching me since I fell… whatever… what's that bloody word…"

"Unconscious."

"Yeah, that's the one." I sat up properly, uncurling my legs (which hurt, clearly I'd been curled up for a while) and wiping at the dried blood streaming down my face from my nose, frowning slightly as I tried to swallow.

"No, I wasn't watching you that entire time. Just checking you were still breathing every now and again," Barnes sounded slightly amused, but mostly like he wasn't hugely concerned, "Heard you moving and turned around. These aren't exactly made of the quietest material." He demonstrated by shifting his weight slightly. I cringed slightly as the leather crackled.

"Ow," I muttered, "Too loud. Same with talking."

"You shouldn't have used your powers so much."

"What other choice did I have?" I muttered, standing up, leaning heavily on my chair. I almost fell over as it swung around with me, my head already spinning enough as it was. The additional movement almost sent me sprawling to the floor, and I only just managed to catch myself, standing still for a moment before continuing to make my way over to a bunch of containment chambers, pulling out a bottle of water, tipping some of it out onto my hand and using it to splash my face before drinking a lot of it, using what remained to continue to try and clean my face.

"You still look like shit." Barnes told me as I made my way back to my seat. I tried to throw the now empty bottle at him, but it more dropped out of my hand rather than going anywhere.

"Shit." I grumbled, once again curling up, despite how much my muscles protested, my head falling against the back of the seat as I looked at Barnes. He was trying hard to hide it, but I could see how concerned he was.

"My condition is only… not lasting long… uh… temp… or… whatever. Temporary," I assured him, "I'm not going to be a burden," Barnes didn't look too convinced, "But getting us off the grid for a while might be a good idea."

"I wonder what gives you that idea." I half smiled, feeling my eyes shut of their own accord, forcing them open a blinking a couple of times before struggling to hide a yawn.

"Any ideas where to go?" I asked through my yawn.

"I was in stasis and then living in the middle of nowhere," Barnes pointed out, "Anywhere I know of, Hydra will probably know of, too."

"Good point," I sniffed, cringing slightly at the feeling, "Park somewhere near Malibu."

"Why?"

"You're gonna hate this, but we need help and Tony is the last person anyone would expect us to turn to. Well… the last person they'd expect you to turn to. And I think I've made it perfectly clear to the world that I'll stick by you." Barnes frowned slightly at that, and I wasn't entirely certain what part of what I'd said it was he was frowning at, or if it was everything I'd said.

"I don't…" He paused, and I half smiled, shifting into a position I was less likely to fall asleep in.

"I doubt Tony would turn me away, and if you're with me you should be fine. He's had time to cool off, hopefully. With any luck he'll be more concerned with me than with you." Barnes just nodded, spinning the pilot's seat around and returning to his job of piloting the craft. Anything else was left unsaid and unanswered.

* * *

It was a long journey before we reached Tony, especially since we ditched the jet quite a way out and had to hitchhike for a distance to the nearest town before we reached a city where we could steal a car. We then proceeded to ditch that car and walk the rest of the to Tony's mansion. By the end of it, both of us felt like we needed a long shower and a good rest without anyone trying to kill us. I knocked on the door, then turned to Barnes.

"Probably best you leave me to do the talking." He just nodded, watching the door. He still wasn't keen on the thought of staying with Tony, but it was the best plan either of us could think of. We needed help, and Tony probably still cared about what would happen to me, even if he did rather want Barnes dead.

The door opened not that long after, Tony standing there in grey track pants and a black t-shirt, a bag of peanuts in his hand. He froze as soon as his eyes landed on us, a dark look crossing his face as he spotted Barnes, then door open far enough for me to see him holding his arm back. It wasn't long before the arm of his suit was donned, pointed in Barnes' direction. Barnes took half a step back, but I just calmly stepped between them, holding my hands facing palm out, a bit like I was trying to sooth a panicking animal.

"Tony, stop this. We came for help."

"Get out of the way, Tyra."

"We've been through this before, and you know I won't. Just hear me out, would you?" Tony took his eyes off Barnes, who I could feel tensed behind me, still ready to move if he needed to, but turned slightly so that if he had to, he could get between Tony and me. Not that I'd want him to if it came to it. Tony's eyes met mine, and I could see he wasn't going to lower his arm.

"Talk."

"We got found by Hydra, we need help. I don't expect to convince you, if I'm honest, but you're the first person I could think of to help us. There's nowhere else for us to go, not when we're wanted criminals and probably seen as traitors to the country or something."

"Why would you bring him here? You know what he did."

"Yeah, I do know what he did. I did similar things, killed the parents of many people. Would you let any of them kill me?" Tony frowned slightly, looking back at Barnes, still not lowering his hand, "Please, Tony. I don't expect you to be best friends, we just need help." His arm slowly lowered after a pause and he stepped back to let us enter, still glaring daggers at Barnes.

"I'll be watching him."

"I wouldn't expect anything else." I told him as we stepped past, entering the mansion. Barnes tried to stay as far from Tony as he could as he looked around the expansive area, probably silently impressed, though also most likely looking for a route of escape if it was needed.

"How long are you planning on staying?" Tony asked, shutting the door behind us and locking it, his suit's arm vanishing down to his basement, "Not that I'm trying to get rid of you or anything." He helped himself to another handful of peanuts, chucking them in his mouth like he couldn't care less, though I could see the look in his eyes, the way he kept watching Barnes, the way his muscles were still tense.

"Hopefully not long," I shrugged, "Not too sure yet."

"Maybe I could help with whatever it is you're going to be doing." He looked at me, now seeming more relaxed. I smiled at him, putting my hands in my jean pockets as I shrugged.

"Dunno if there is much you can do to help. I just need access to your toys, a few materials, and a computer."

"What's it for?"

"Making him a temporary arm," I pointed my thumb at Barnes, who looked around in surprise, "And you don't want to know about what I'm using the computer for." He watched me suspiciously.

"Tyra…" He warned.

"Trust me, it's better you don't know. If anyone comes asking questions about us and we're actually caught, then you don't want to be more involved in this than you already are."

"You have a plan, then?" Barnes asked, turning to look at me. I glanced a look at him, then shrugged, turning so I could face both the boys at the same time.

"Not exactly, but I have ideas."

"Well that clears things up," Tony said, falsely cheerful, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes, "While you keep coming up with random ideas, I'll show you to your rooms, get you towels, that kind of thing. I'll also call Pepper, see if she can get you some clean clothes. You look like you need them." He looked me over with a concerned eye, the blood stains on my shirt sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Both of us?" I asked.

"I'm not gonna have him, or you, walking around my house when still in filthy clothes. I do have standards, you know."

"You know he has a name?"

"Course I do. Doesn't mean I'm going to use it."

"You know he's also in the room?"

"It's fine, Tyra." Barnes told me, shaking his head when I looked at him, uncertain. I sighed, following Tony as he showed us to our rooms. Barnes got a room closer to the door than I did, I got moved to a seemingly completely different part of the house, something I doubted either of us failed to notice.

My room, at least, had an en suite. I assumed Barnes' room would also have one, it seemed like the kind of thing Pepper would have insisted on. If there were guest rooms, then each room would have its own bathroom. It's not like they didn't have the money for it. My room was reasonably sized, nicely styled. The bed would need to be made, not having any sheets on it yet. I could do that myself – after I'd had a shower, and some coffee. Tony left me to get slightly settled, returning not long after with a towel and facecloth.

"Pepper said she'll be back soon with clothes, thinks she can remember your size." He told me as he turned to leave the room after handing me the towel and facecloth.

"Thank you, Tony," I told him, making him pause for a moment, hand on the door, readying to close it behind him, "For everything. I know how you feel about Barnes, and I know I'm probably not exactly in your good books at the moment…" I wasn't entirely sure where this was going, shifting uncomfortably, hoping Tony would break the awkward silence. He slowly turned and faced me, a serious look on his face.

"You're a good kid, Tyrant. Don't get me wrong, you choosing Rogers and that guy over me hurt, but I'll always help you. Doesn't mean I'll be happy about it." I couldn't help but feel guilty.

"That choice wasn't an easy one, you know. It was hard on me, too." I whispered. If Tony heard, he didn't bother acknowledging it, silently closing the door behind him as he left. I took a couple of steps backwards and fell onto the bed, chucking the towel off to the side, staring up at the plain white ceiling, my thoughts a tangled mess. I felt like shit, my eyes slowly drifting shut again. I didn't notice that I was falling asleep.

* * *

A knock at the door woke me up, Pepper stepping in, shutting the door behind her as she stepped over to me.

"Are you alright?" She asked, "What are you doing here? Tony wouldn't tell me anything on the phone." I groaned as I sat up, my back objecting, then rubbed my eyes.

"We're fine, Pepper," I assured her, "Just tired. It's been a long few days."

"But you look like shit." I blinked slowly, watching her with tired eyes.

"Thanks. You know just how to make me feel better."

"Sorry…" She sat down next to me, opening the bag in her hands, pulling out the contents one by one, "I got you a couple of tank tops and a couple of t-shirts as well as a couple of pairs of jeans and some pyjamas," She chucked each item off to the side, not even bothering to mention the underwear, "A hoodie, and some new shoes."

"Why do I need new…" I looked down at my sneakers, only now noticing that they did look like they were wanting to fall to pieces at any moment, "Right, thanks." I grabbed the nearest tank top, which was dark blue with a y back, and a pair of jeans – black – along with undergarments and headed off to the bathroom, stumbling slightly, Pepper hurriedly standing to help support me.

"I'm fine, Pepper, just stood up too fast."

"Why do I feel like there's something you're hiding from us?" She asked, gently. I stopped walking and slowly turned to face her, then looked away slightly, staring off into nothing.

"There was someone there, an enhanced," I told her, "He could control fire. I've never had that much control, he was even managing to hold it up against water. And he was clearly working with Hydra, which… almost kinda funny with the name and his ability… getting off topic. If he comes after us again, then I don't know if…" I looked up to meet her eyes again, shrugging slightly, "I dunno if I can hold him off again, let alone actually beat him. His power over a single element is greater than what I have over all of them." Pepper looked at me with a slightly confused expression.

"What does that mean?"

"Honestly, I don't know. Probably just that I need to practice a lot more," I shrugged, "I shouldn't have bothered you with it. With any luck we won't run into each other again and it'll be fine," I smiled at her in what I hoped was a reassuring way, "Anyway, I really need to have a shower."

"Right! I need to talk to Tony, anyway. It's nice to have you back, Tyra."

"It's nice to be back, believe me."

"He did miss you, you know," Pepper told me, getting a confused look in response, "Tony would never admit it, but he missed you, all of you. Except Sergeant Barnes. Him, he always hated." I half smiled.

"That one, though I hate to admit it, is understandable," I muttered, "Thanks, Pepper." She smiled, then headed for the door, and I headed for my shower, frowning slightly, thinking about what had happened as I turned on the shower and stripped off. With our luck there was no chance that we weren't going to run into the fire elemental again. Since when had we been lucky? All of us so-called superheroes had gotten to where we were through a series of unfortunate events (ha ha), when had any kind of luck other than the bad variety been involved in our lives? Though when it came down to it, Nat had Bruce (kinda), Clint had Laura, Steve had what's-her-name-blonde-agent-chick, Tony had Pepper… on and off… T'Challa had Nakia, Wanda and Vision had each other (if they actually ever got together).

So, I guessed that in a way there was some good luck, them running into each other in the first place, some good things do happen. Dale had Maria, though who knew where they were. They'd seemed to cut off all ties with me, but I understood that. I'd been in Wakanda for ages, and Dale couldn't keep trying to sneak me letters. In some ways, his dropping all ties with me was a blessing. But I didn't want to think about that. For now, I had to remain on mission. That was all that mattered. I couldn't afford to worry about anything else. Find Steve and the others, though they were probably scattered until further notice, make a temporary arm for Barnes, and figure out how to defeat this other elemental. Those were my primary concerns.

I stepped into the shower as I continued to form my plan, working out the best order to do things in, using the water to spell out my plans so I could visualise them as well as plan them. My shower probably took longer than it should have because of it.


	4. Chapter 4

I headed to the kitchen once I was clean and dressed, helping myself to some coffee. By now I was dying for some, and my headache wasn't helping in the slightest. Tony walked past, shoving a packet at me, not even pausing before continuing on, a bun in his mouth, trying desperately to do up his tie. Pepper smiled in amusement as she crossed over to him, helping him to tie it up properly while he finished eating his snack. I glanced down to what Tony had given me, looking back at him to see he was watching me. I smiled and nodded in thanks, receiving a nod in return. It was then that I really paid attention to how well done up he and Pepper were.

"Going out?"

"She's dragging me to a Stark Industries thing," Tony told me, "Don't burn the house down while we're out." He said, turning and heading for the door. Pepper watched him for a moment, shaking her head, then looked at me.

"I'm not dragging him." She said, rolling her eyes. I just smiled slightly.

"You better hurry up if you want to make sure he doesn't do anything too stupid."

"I heard that." Tony called back over his shoulder.

"You were meant to," I yelled at him, "You two have fun." Pepper gave me a looking saying it was going to be a boring meeting and Tony was probably going to get them into some sort of mild trouble, then headed off after him. I opened the small box Tony had given me and slid out a sheet of pills, popping two of them, grabbing a glass, then heading to the tap for water before downing both in one go. By now I'd had a lot of practice at swallowing a shit load of pills in one go. After I'd finished the water I turned and grabbed a mug, helping myself to coffee. It was then that Barnes came out of his room.

"Safe now?" He asked. I gave him a mildly amused look.

"I don't think you really have to avoid Tony, y'know."

"You were then when he tried to kill me, right?"

"I dunno, it's a little fuzzy… might ring a bell… was that how I broke my arm and a couple of ribs?"

"Oh look, you can remember some things." I scoffed, leaning back against the bench and sipping my coffee.

"Checked your room for cameras yet?" I asked.

"No, and I'm not going to."

"Smart move," I set my coffee on the bench, "Want some?" I asked, motioning to the coffee maker, some state of the art thing Tony got who knew when. Probably fairly recently. Barnes shrugged.

"Sure." He took a seat and looked around the place again, seeming more relaxed now Tony was out of the building. I took out a mug and set it on the bench.

"How do you want it?" I asked. He shrugged again.

"Just however."

"You're not much of a coffee person, are you?" I asked, slightly amused.

"I'll drink it if it's offered, but I won't go out of my way to make it." He looked around at me, leaning on his arm.

"You prefer tea?"

"Not really."

"Do you just not drink hot beverages?"

"Think about how I've been living for the past God only knows how long," He said, "I'm used to not having hot drinks."

"You don't want to take advantage of having… uh…" I frowned, the words escaping me.

"Access?"  
"Yeah, that. Thanks," I half smiled, slightly awkwardly, "Don't you want to take advantage of having access to them?"

"Like I said. If they're offered, I'll drink them."

"Oh, so now I'm being turned into a waitress! I see how it is." I finished making up Barnes' coffee, the same way as I'd made mine since he claimed not to mind, walking over to him so he didn't have to move to take it. I then returned and grabbed my cup before heading to take a seat nearish to Barnes, sitting with my feet on the chair with me.

"I thought waitresses got paid?"

"Well, that makes me feel _so_ much better. Thanks for that, Barnes." I smirked, taking another sip of my coffee. Barnes just looked at me like I was insane. I shrugged, my coffee trying to spill but not managing.

"What?" I asked.

"How are you drinking that? Isn't it too hot?" He asked.

"Elemental," I pointed out, "If you want I can cool yours down a bit."

"Sure…"

"Okay, done. Enjoy your coffee."

"You didn't even do anything." Barnes looked back at his drink, still frowning.

"You expecting me to say a string of magic words or something?" I asked, rolling my eyes slightly, "Just drink," He gave me a slightly suspicious look before taking a cautious sip, "Cooling and warming things isn't that hard. How do you think I keep managing to start fires out of seemingly nothing?"

"You start fire out of nothing?"

"No, I just heat the air up so much that nearby things catch fire, then I control the fire."

"Huh…" He looked back at his drink, "Must come in handy."

"Not really. Only when it comes to combat situations," I shrugged, "And I try to avoid those."

"Not exactly easy for people like us, is it?" Barnes stayed staring at his drink. I shook my head.

"No, not really," I thought for a moment, then finished my drink, standing up and leaving the mug by the sink, "Hurry up and finish that then join me in Tony's workshop. Need to talk to you about the plan."

"You mean we have a plan?" Barnes looked at me incredulously.

"Of course we do," I gave him a look, "And I have to tell you before I start forgetting things again. Which would probably happen when we least wanted it. So either hurry up and finish that, or follow me now and be careful not to spill it." I walked off, Barnes sighing before standing up and following me. I didn't bother telling him that I was making sure the liquid didn't spill out of the mug as we headed down into Tony's workspace.

Naturally, the playboy philanthropist had a rather nice security system to stop people from breaking into it, and of course I'd been deleted from the system, but I wasn't a master of tech for nothing and had rather quickly bypassed it. We entered the area, Barnes once again looking around, this time seeming rather impressed. I grinned.

"You weren't a techy by any chance, were you?" I asked, walking backwards as I looked at him. He looked back at me in boyish wonder.

"I might have had a small interest," He admitted, and I couldn't resist the grin growing slightly, "Went to see what wondrous new thing Howard had come up with almost every time he admitted to having new tech. Working with him was…"

"Amazing?" I supplied, "Yeah, I know how that feels. When I was a kid, Tony was probably one of my heroes. As I got older I realized more and more that he was a bit of a stuck-up idiot, then he hated me almost immediately when we first met." I chuckled, turning as I reached the computers I was aiming for, taking a seat and starting to type away.

"I find it hard to believe he ever hated you." Barnes said, looking at the equipment Tony had. I scoffed.

"Oh, it was hate at first sight," I said, frowning slightly as I tried to get into the computer, my fingers a blur on the keyboard, "It wasn't until I refused to tell him if I'd hacked JARVIS or not that he decided he actually liked me."

"Had you hacked JARVIS?"

"Nope, that wasn't until after he asked me. I probably still have photos somewhere of Steve and Tony sparring, Tony in his suit, and suddenly Tony started doing the Chicken Dance and couldn't stop. Their faces were priceless." I grinned as I managed to get into the computer, then opened a window on it and started typing madly, trying to find what I was after.

"You guys were really close, weren't you?" Barnes asked, now leaning against one of the benches, still drinking his coffee.

"Close enough." I shrugged, completely oblivious to the consequences those two words could have. Barnes didn't look at me, frowning slightly. I kept working, not really noticing the silence that had fallen over us until it was broken not long later by PARROT showing up.

" _Hello, Miss Jones. I trust your journey was uneventful?"_

"Oh, shut it would you?" I growled, "You know perfectly well it wasn't. And you also know that I _hate_ being called Miss Jones."

"What the hell…" Barnes moved over to stand behind me, looking at the screen in bewilderment. I looked around at him, leaning back in my seat and motioning to the face that had appeared on the screen. It was just a simple female face, like a bust, but it was still a female face staring out of the screen.

"Barnes, meet PARROT, also known as the Pesky And Really Rather Obnoxious Technology."

" _I find the name rather insulting, actually."_ PARROT said, turning her head slightly. I raised an eyebrow.

"Serves you right."

" _You're the one that programmed me."_

"Not like this, I didn't," I muttered, "Unfortunately, you took AI a step further than I'd intended and before I knew it, I had a mini Ultron on my hands."

" _That was a low blow…"_

"Wait," Barnes looked at me, "You made that thing?"

" _I'm not a thing!"_

"Yes, I made PARROT," I shrugged, "Tony made so many AI's, I decided that I may as well make one. Then she ended up being vaguely annoying." I glared at PARROT, who perfectly happily glared back at me.

"And you still keep her around."

"She's good for bouncing ideas off," I shrugged again, "Speaking of which, now that you're here PARROT, I need you to vanish again."

" _After all the effort you went through to find me?"_

"Not vanish vanish, but I need you to find some info and then find Steve."

" _Steve?"_ Barnes looked a bit worried about how hopeful PARROT looked at the mention of his friend, and I had to struggle not to laugh.

"Yes, Steve. But I need you to find the info first."

" _What info?"_

"I need you to find something – anything – about the Phoenix."

" _The bird?"_

"No. The Hydro agent."

" _Hydra._

"I said Hydra."

" _You said Hydro."_

"No I didn't."

"You said Hydro." Barnes told me, earning a dry look from me.

"No I didn't."

"You did."

"Whatever…" I muttered, turning back to PARROT, "You and Barnes stop ganging up on me and you go find the info, okay?"

" _What do you want me to do with the information?"_ PARROT asked.

"Give it to Steve. Once you find him, find us again. Not sure if we'll still be here or not. I'll send something out so you can find our location again in ten days."

" _You think it will take me that long to find Steve and everything I can find on Phoenix? I'm insulted."_

"That's fine, be insulted."

" _You are a horrible human being."_

"That's because I'm only half human, PARROT. Now get lost."

" _Fine! I'm going!"_ The face faded from the screen and I sighed, leaning back in the chair.

"Well, she had…"

"Personality?" I asked, glancing around at Barnes.

"Isn't it meant to be me reminding you of words?" He asked, looking away from the screen and down at me. I rolled my eyes.

"I was just interrupting you this time, let's put it that way." Barnes shrugged, leaning back against a table behind him.

"So what's your plan?" He asked. I blinked a couple of times, spinning the chair so I could watch him.

"I haven't said it yet."

"No."

"Right… I'm still making it up as I go, but pretty much, I'm reasonably sure that it was Phoenix that we saw in Wakanda."

"Okay, so why do we need Steve?"

"It's nicer for Tony if we don't stay with him for a long period of time, and it's safer for us if we're not alone. Not to mention that I've been worried about Steve and the others for a little while."

"Because you haven't heard from them?" I shrugged, standing up and crossing over to Tony's hologram and turning it on, starting to put together a plan for Barnes' new arm.

"Why now?" I asked him as I worked, "Of all the times that Hydra could have found us to attack us, why now? What's changed?"

"Could just be this was when they found us. We were reasonably well hidden." He pointed out. I shook my head.

"Neither of us have done anything to make anyone in Wakanda hate us, right? At least, I don't think I have, and you were put in one of the quieter settlements, so if anyone was going to tell Hydra where we were - or more specifically, you, most likely - then why wait? I'd tell Hydra as soon as I knew, and frankly… I was one of the easiest ways of finding you. Well… and Shuri. If we were followed, then you would be reasonably easy to find. And you were more hidden than I was. I doubt I was the target, or not the original one."

"You're thinking out loud, aren't you?"

"Yes, don't worry, I'm just trying to get this sorted in my head. Feel free to jump in and add anything you can think of, though."

"You could have been just as much of a target as me," Barnes put forward, "You were in the capital. You were more protected than I was."

"Okay, so we were quite possibly both targets," I frowned, "But that wasn't the first time we were in the same place."

"First time for a while."

"Yeah, but… I feel like there's more of a reason than that. It's just a feeling." Barnes finished his coffee, placing the cup back on the table and watching me work, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You think it has something to do with Phoenix?" He asked.

"I don't know, but it's a place to start. Hopefully PARROT will be able to find something, Steve can check it out."

"So what about the plan?"

"Make you your arm, figure out why we were attacked when we were, stop whatever Hydra has planned, probably get out of Tony's hair at some point. Meet up with Steve. Like I said, making this up as we go along." Barnes scoffed, smiling slightly.

"You're not much of one for planning, are you?"

"Make a base plan, then you can change things if you need to," I replied, "Oh, and I need to get stronger."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean my abilities, they're not strong enough. If that guy was Phoenix - and I'm pretty much positive that he was - then my powers aren't strong enough. He has only one element to worry about gaining full control over. I have four. While in many situations that can be an advantage, against him it's a weakness, unless I can get stronger."

"On the off chance we run into him again?" Barnes asked.

"I could barely hold those flames back from the civilians," I muttered, "I just need enough control over the elements to be able to hold him back, which I don't currently have."

"A reasonable chunk of this plan seems to rely on you," Barnes watched me closely, "You don't need to do this on your own, you know."

"I took it on myself to watch your back. I made my choice years ago, I'm not going back on it now." He watched me for a moment longer, then took his cup and went to leave the room. I glanced up at him as he left, wondering if he realised why I was insisting on helping him regardless of what trouble it could get me into. Talk about taking a crush too far… I shook my head, pulling the Wakandan communicator out of my pocket and tucking it behind my ear.

"Shuri, you around?" I asked.

" _I'm afraid she's busy. Will I do?"_

"T'Challa!" I half smiled, "Surprisingly good to hear your voice."

" _It's good to hear your voice too, Tyra. You had us worried."_

"Yeah… had myself worried, too," I admitted, "How is everyone? Did they make it out okay?"

" _Yes, thanks to you. We dealt with those remaining soon after. Shuri told us what was happening."_

"Was there someone controlling fire?" I asked, pausing in my designing to listen to T'Challa's response.

" _If there was then he wasn't showing his powers."_

"Well, at least we now know that he got away. Terrific."

" _Who is he?"_

"It doesn't matter. The less you know, the safer you are. Tell Shuri that I'm messing with our designs and that I'll get them to her as soon as I can so she can make a stronger arm than I'm going to."

" _Tyra, be careful."_

"That's rich, coming from you." I scoffed, half smiling as I resumed working. I could hear T'Challa chuckle slightly on the other end.

" _I don't know what you're talking about."_

"Yeah, ya do. No promises, but I'll try."

" _That's enough for me. Shuri might be another matter entirely."_

"Then tell her not to worry, she can be back to driving me up the wall in no time. Anyhow, I better get back to work. Thanks, T'Challa." I hung up, slipping the device back into my pocket. T'Challa and never really actually said anything along the lines of 'bye' or 'see ya later', not to each other anyway. For some reason we didn't see much of a point in saying it to each other. Might end up regretting it someday, or one of us might, but until then we didn't particularly care.

* * *

Tony came by a while later, frowning when he saw me in his work area, opening the door and crossing over to me. I was taking a break, letting the computer work over some simulations. So far the arm seemed like it would work, FRIDAY occasionally throwing in something that could be an improvement, then generally returning the arm to how I'd designed it. Shuri and I had been working on designing this thing pretty much since I met her, so we'd worked the kinks out pretty much perfectly. My head was leaning on my arms, folded on the desk, but I sat up upon Tony's entering the room. He didn't say anything at first, stopping and looking at the blueprints for the arm.

"You come up with this on your own?" He asked. I shook my head.

"T'Challa's sister helped a fair bit," I explained, "I think you'd like her. She's fun." He nodded, still not looking at me. He was still in his suit, but his tie was undone and hanging around his shoulders, the top button of his shirt unbuttoned and the shirt partially untucked.

"How'd you manage to get in here?" He asked eventually.

"Hacking is second nature to me, remember? Or has it been so long that you've forgotten?" He rolled his eyes at me, then half glared at me. He was obviously waiting for me to make the next move, but I didn't exactly know what he was wanting, so I just shrugged.

"What?" I asked.

"Saw Ross tonight," He told me, and I felt my whole body tense, "He's still wanting your heads on a plate."

"All of us?" He nodded, "Well… did you tell him about Barnes and me being here?"

"Course I didn't," Tony snapped, "Just because you turned on me doesn't mean I'm going to turn on you." He muttered that last part, hands in pockets as he looked away again. A pang of guilt shot through me, maybe a touch of anger following it.

"I didn't have a lot of choice, you know."

"Of course you did!"

"No, Tony, I didn't," I sighed, running a had through my hair, "Will you let me try to… um… shit… um…"

"Explain. The word you want is explain."

"Yeah, thanks," I threw him a half smile, motioning for him to sit next to me, "Will you let me explain why I chose what I did?" Tony thought a moment before grudgingly sitting down, "Not quite sure where I should be starting and I'll probably be forgetting some stuff, but anyway…" Tony looked around at me, waiting slightly impatiently for me to start, "So, I got out of the Avengers because I wanted to rebuild a relationship with Dale, then shit went down with the accords and I joined up with Cap after Vienna or something…"

"I know. Why?" He didn't sound very happy about being reminded of this stuff.

"Uh… further back. Steve asked me to look for Barnes. I found him reasonably quick, then didn't lose him, just kept Steve and Sam away from him. Part of that was digging up past information. That's when I found out about… you know…" The frown on Tony's face grew, "I told Steve because I wasn't the right person to tell you. Then when push came to shove, I sided with him and Barnes because I've killed just as many people as Barnes. People just as important in my life as your parents were to you, as Howard was to Steve and Barnes. And even though you're all really supportive of what happened to me, helping me with what I did, Barnes actually went through that. You protected me… he needed someone to protect him. I guess… I guess I just went with what felt more familiar. More like me."

"That doesn't make me feel any better, Tyrant."

"I know, Tony, I know. But…" I sighed, "How to explain this… We've all been through our own shit. My shit is just… it's a lot more similar to the shit that Barnes has gone through. And while everyone was helping me so, so much, I just," I paused, frowning, trying to get the words in order in my head, "I just needed someone who knew what it was like. To be forced to do something that you really don't want to do."

"We've all been there. We've all had to make the tough choices."

"Not like Barnes and I have. You made those choices, we had them made for us."

"You sound like you like him."

"Well… yeah… he's my friend."

"More than that." I froze.

"Um… what?"

"You like him, don't you?" Now Tony looked at me, his eyes meeting mine, and I could feel my cheeks burning. I hated not being able to lie convincingly, Tony knowing just from that one look that his suspicions were right. He didn't say anything, then stood up and started walking around his work space, putting together everything I was going to need to make the new arm.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" He asked, looking up at me, "We gonna get to work or not?" I stood up and crossed over to the bench he was setting up on, picking up tools and getting to work.

"Surprised you want to help." I murmured.

"Better than getting another lecture from Pepper." He replied, shrugging it off, though I knew the truth. He wanted to help me. He'd never admit it, but he still saw me as a sort of daughter figure.


	5. Chapter 5

_The grass was still damp underfoot as we set up our picnic. First, the blanket. It was old, something from well before I was born, patches unmatching to the rest of the red and black tartan blanket that smelled of mothballs and dust, maybe a hint of damp. There was also the vague smell of the laundry powder used in washing it the day before, but that smell was hardly noticeable over what had become a part of the blanket itself. I'd always been told that this was my grandfather's blanket originally, handed down to my mom when she got married._

 _My grandfather was standing at the edge of the lake nearby, doing his best to help Dale search for frogs, pointing out the tadpoles that swam around in the mildly murky shallows, darting between the reeds. My grandmother was already setting up picnic chairs, her and my grandfather being too old to get up again easily if they sat on the ground. Mom and dad were setting up the picnic food, the plastic plates, cutlery, and cups. They were plain white plastic, except for the cups. The cups were different colours, and I was very proud of my pink one. It was actually red, but it was so old and faded that now it looked pink._

 _The wind gently blew around us, pollen being sent into the air, wafting all around us, enveloping us in a mixture of flower scents and dew drying in the early morning sun. As soon as the picnic blanket was set out to my mom's satisfaction, I sat down, plastic cup clasped in my pudgy hands as I held it to my chest, eyes trained on my grandfather and Dale as my grandfather burst out laughing, Dale struggling not to fall over backwards as he tried desperately to keep a hold of the amphibian he had managed to catch. My dad smiled slightly, but my mom looked less amused by the situation. I was aware she was talking, but I wasn't paying enough attention to be able to tell what it was._ _Some of the objects around me were blurred, some faces I knew I recognised, but couldn't actually see properly._ _I looked around slowly, blinking my perhaps slightly oversized eyes as I looked up a nearby hill._

 _Atop the hill stood a man, face obscured by shadow, hands in pockets. He wore dark clothes, which was surprising on such a warm, sunny day. I frowned, standing up, now an adult, the old plastic cup falling from my hands as I walked towards the man, the one who had taken charge of capturing me and training me once I became a part of Hydra. As I moved towards him, the picnic faded out of existence, a small flame taking its place. The wind picked up and the Hydra agent disintegrated away, the almost ashen substance blowing away on the breeze. I frowned, my hair being tugged around my face, dancing at the edges of my vision as I reached up and pushed some back as it got stuck in my mouth slightly._

 _Fire started dancing around me, the heat licking at my skin. And I didn't even mind, hardly even noticed, eyes locking with a pair that seemed to be a part of the fire that was desperate to eat anything it touched, eyes almost the same colour as the flame they emerged from. I didn't need anyone to tell me whose eyes they were. Phoenix.  
_

* * *

I woke up at one of the work benches, back sore from sleeping leaning on the desk. Tony was gone, but there was a blanket draped over my shoulders. I brushed my hair out of my face as I stood up, stool scraping slightly on the floor. The air was cold, making me glad that I was wearing shoes. I made my way over to where the arm was, the interior already taking shape, progressing at a reasonably fast rate. It would be going a lot slower without Tony, I knew that. Though I still wasn't a hundred percent sure why he had agreed to help us. I would be lying if I said I wasn't grateful, though. And proud.

I worked a little more on the arm before leaving the room, heading up to the kitchen, putting a cup of coffee together. It took me longer than it should have to notice the subtle changes in the air, my hands freezing just as I was about to pick up my cup. I slowly turned around, frowning, eyes connecting with brilliant blue ones, eyes that sparkled like sapphires, even in the gloom. But that wasn't what got me most. The girl in front of me might have been about eight years old, very slim, and was covered in fur. On the top of her head were a pair of cat ears, her face a mix of human and feline features. I couldn't make her hands out properly, she was too busy ringing her shirt between them, but there was something not quite right about them.

"Now how did you get in here?" I wondered, the girl flinching away. I quickly held my hands out, shaking my head slightly.

"No, no, it's okay," I slowly crouched down to try and show I wasn't a threat, "It's okay," I repeated, "I don't want to hurt you." The girl slowly calmed down, relaxing ever so slightly, but I could tell she was still in fight or flight mode. I smiled calmly, more to myself.

"I'm Tyra," I introduced, "What's your name?" She looked at me quizzically and I thought for a moment, "Okay… do you know where you are?" Again, no response. I sat down properly, my knees starting to ache from crouching for mildly too long, the girl taking a hurried step back at my movement.

"It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," I assured her, "I'm going to slowly reach up and grab my coffee, though. Okay?" The girl didn't seem to understand what I was saying, but I reached up slowly anyway, the girl never taking her eyes off me. Slowly, cautiously, I took a sip.

"Tony always gets the best coffee," I told her, saying anything that came to mind so she could get more used to me, "I just hope like hell it's not the stuff that they harvest from something's poop. Sure it'd be cleaned, but it just doesn't appeal somehow. Frankly, any coffee is fine by me. So long as it keeps me awake, I'm happy. Some of the cheap stuff is really nasty, though," The kid just stayed watching me, unblinking, uncomprehending, "You really don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?" I asked, sighing slightly. She didn't run off, but she certainly wasn't getting any calmer. Not quickly, anyway. A quiet rumble echoed around the empty room and I smiled, the girl looking a little embarrassed.

"Hungry, are we?" I asked, setting my coffee on the bench, still using slow movements. I used the bench to very slowly and cautiously help me to stand up, the girl watching every movement I made as I turned away from her, opening a cupboard and pulling out a box of cocoa pops.

"Vaguely surprised Tony keeps these around," I told her, "It's been so long since I've actually stayed with the guy. I went through a phase of loving these things. Still prefer pancakes, but Pepper kept telling me that pancakes were more of an every now and then thing. Cocoa pops were our middle ground." I went about putting together a bowl of the things, pouring milk into it and slowly turning to face the girl. She'd taken a couple of steps towards me, peering around so she could better see what I was doing. I smiled. Progress.

I crouched down again, putting the bowl at the halfway point between us, then standing back again, pulling out a mug and filling it with milk to heat up. The girl snatched up the bowl while I was doing this, completely ignoring the spoon I'd put with the bowl, slurping up the food, getting it all over her face. It was almost funny, if it weren't for the fact that I knew she was only acting like this because of how hungry she was.

Once the milk was heated I put the right powder in, hot chocolate, once more putting it on the floor for the kid to grab. It wasn't going to be the easiest thing, getting this kid to feel comfortable around her.

"I would make pancakes, but quite frankly, I can't cook. Not my forte. Should get Tony in here. He makes decent pancakes. But I dunno if we want to wake him up. He gets cranky if he gets woken up too early. What even is the time…" I looked around for a clock, but couldn't see any, "FRIDAY, what's the time?" I asked.

" _3:32, Miss."_

"Don't call me miss," I shook my head, the kid looking around in panic at the strange voice appearing from nowhere, "But thanks for the time," I looked at the girl, "It's okay, she's just an AI. A nice AI, which is something I'm not entirely used to. Though I suppose PARROT just has personality…" The girl looked around at me in confusion, not understanding me. I just shrugged, picking up my coffee and taking a drink, cringing as I found it to be cold. My eyes changed to a vaguely orange colour as I heated the liquid again. The kid, thankfully, didn't seem to notice, sitting huddled in the middle of the floor, now clasping the mug in her hands and readily drinking the hot beverage I'd made for her. When she was done she stood up, still hunched over ever so slightly, and held out the mug and bowl to me.

"More?" I asked, miming pouring more cereal into the bowl. The girl shook her head and I half turned, heading to put the things in the sink, watching for her reaction. She nodded, then turned and headed to one of the more comfortable chairs and curled up in it. I placed the crockery in the sink, finishing my coffee and placing my dirty dishes there too, then headed over to the girl. She watched me with tired eyes, but didn't look like she wanted to run away from me, her body now completely relaxed. I offered my hand to her, though she made no move to take it. Eventually I gave up, settling down next to the chair she had chosen, waiting until she fell asleep. I looked around the room as I waited, leaning my back against the chair, one leg straight out in front of me, the other knee raised so I could lean my arm on it.

"You know, my mom used to do this when I was a kid," I told the girl, "Whenever my brother or I were feeling sick she would stay up with us, let us curl up in her chair in the living room while she waited for us to fall asleep. Would make us some kind of hot liquid. Sometimes it was hot chocolate, sometimes it was soup or something along those lines. A couple of times it was my dad's mom's putrid tea. That wasn't fun. Most tea is okay, but that stuff was… It was disgusting. Got to the point where Dale and I would threaten each other with it," I smiled at the memory, "Anyway, we'd fall asleep and wake up in our own bed. Not sure if it was Mom or Dad who carried us there, but Mom would still be there, curled up next to us while we slept," I sighed, looking up at the ceiling, "I find it weird that I can remember things like that, but I can't remember what either of my parents looked like. I only remember what they look like when I actually see photos. Doesn't really count as remembering their faces though, does it?"

I looked around at the girl, who was seriously struggling to stay awake. I smiled at her, then went back to looking around the room, admiring Tony's new home, something I had been meaning to do properly at some point. It definitely had similarities to the old place, but it had its own character too. The colour scheme was a little different. I wasn't yet sure if I preferred the new look or the old one, though both were pretty nice.

My eyes landed on a photo that was framed and placed pride of place on the wall, a small frown on my face. Slowly I pushed myself off the carpet, walking over so I can see more than just vague fuzz. The kid watched me, but she was so tired that it wasn't for very long as I walked over to the picture. It was a photo of Tony, Pepper, and me, not long after my operation. My hair was short, that was the only reason I knew roughly when it was taken. That and I looked more tired than I usually do, but I also looked happy. Genuinely happy. It wasn't often I had those moments. Tony looked happy, too, an arm around Pepper, Pepper with one hand on his chest, the other around him. I was sitting down in front of Tony, his hand on my shoulder, though it was obvious he had been ruffling my hair. I half smiled.

"Wish I could remember when and why this was taken." I muttered, turning to the kid. She was already fast asleep. I crept from the room, walking down the hall to find Barnes, knocking on his door, pausing a moment before cautiously opening it. Barnes silently looked around at me, slightly surprised. He was lying on his bed, book in his hand, wearing pajamas that I assume Tony was lending him. They really didn't look like something he would wear otherwise, the shirt slightly too small. He looked rather bored.  
"I need a hand." I told him, motioning my head in the direction of the living room. He frowned.

"With what?" He asked, setting the book aside and flinging his legs around so his feet were flat on the floor.

"Just… come on, quicker to just show you."

"Not something Tony would be more help with?"

"Only if I want him to go full on rage monster, now come on." He sighed, standing up and following me back down the hall. I stopped in the doorway to the livingroom and motioned with my hand to the couch, Barnes looking down at me before slipping past, taking a couple of steps in and then pausing when he spotted the kid.

"What the…"

"I dunno," I told him, "And I don't know how she got in here, but I don't think she understands English, so we're not about to get any answers to our questions. At least not any time soon. Maybe Tony can get something to translate what she's saying, but that will only work if she actually starts talking."

"So no clue who she is?"

"Nope."

"So why get me?" He half turned to face me as I leaned my back against the door frame, still not having left the doorway.

"She's a bit big for me to carry, and a bed is more comfortable than a chair."

"You do remember that I only have one arm, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me and I pretended to look shocked.

"Really? I thought there was something strange about you other than you looking to be in your early thirties when you're almost a hundred!" I rolled my eyes, "You can still carry her more easily than I can." Barnes sighed, walking over to the sleeping girl.

"So which room is she headed to?" He asked.

"My room, I suppose. Not like I'll be using my bed. Too much to do."

"I'm starting to wonder if you know how to look after yourself." Barnes said, scooping the girl up surprisingly smoothly given his missing arm, the girl automatically wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning against his shoulder. I got a pretty good look at her hands then, the way they were mildly misformed. It was like she was stuck partway between being human and being some kind of cat.

"Ask anyone who knows me and they'll say that I don't have the faintest idea." I muttered, stepping back out of the way as Barnes moved towards me, the kid still completely unaware of the movement.

"Somehow that fails to surprise me." Barnes told me, heading in the direction of the room I was occupying. I half smiled, shaking my head, not bothering to respond.

* * *

He set the girl down in my bed as gently as he could, which would have been a mild struggle given his missing arm, and stepped back as I pulled the sheets over her, tucking her in, brushing her hair back from her face, though it was interesting that her whole body was covered in a thin layer of (still noticeable) fur, the same colour as her hair.

"You have any ideas on how she got in?" Barnes asked me as we left the room so the girl could sleep without any chance of disturbance.

"Considering she got in without setting off any security features… not a bloody clue," I admitted, "All the ways I can think of involve hacking. And for that you need hands that aren't trying to turn into paws with claws."

"Good luck explaining all this to Stark." I groaned at Barnes' comment, closing my eyes in a small grimace.

"Do I have to?" I grumbled. Barnes half smirked.

"You found her," He said, "Your responsibility."

"I hate responsibility. Like I said. I can't even look after myself. How am I meant to look after a kid? A kid that Tony is _not_ going to react well to when he finds out about."

"You'll figure something out," He shrugged and I glared at him, "I'm going back to bed." I headed back to the living room as he locked himself back in his room, presumably to continue reading his book.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony was, unfortunately, the first to come down to the kitchen in the morning. The only blessing about this was that the kid wasn't there. If she was then things would have gotten a lot more awkward a lot sooner.

"Morning." Tony grunted, heading over to the coffee.

"Morning," I greeted back, watching his movements, wondering when the best time to tell him about the kid was, "How awake are you right now?"

"Not very. If you have bad news, keep it to yourself."

"Well… your security system doesn't work as well as you thought it did." I blurted out, Tony's movements faltering, the cup he was holding suddenly rolling across the bench. He turned and glared at me.

"Tyrant, what did you do?"

"Nothing this time, I swear," I assured him, "Well… nothing to make the security system stop working. The thing is… you have another guest."

"I swear, if you brought Rogers here, too -"

"It's not Steve, I promise. For one thing she's a girl, and for another she's about ninety-two years too young." Tony raised an eyebrow at me, folding his arms across his chest.

"What?"

"And she's not exactly… well… she's a cat."

"You got a cat."

"No. She is like a cat. Or part cat. I dunno. It's weird. Anyway, she was up here when I was making coffee at about 3:30 this morning. I couldn't just throw her out."

"You know that this isn't your house, right?" He asked, walking towards me, "You can't just decide who's allowed to stay here and who isn't."

"I know that, Tony, but -"

"First you bring _him_ here, when you know what he did, and now you let a stranger stay here? You don't know who she is, you don't know what she's doing, you don't know where she came from, you don't know anything about her."

"Tony, can you just listen to me?"

"No, Tyra, you listen to me," Tony snapped, "You don't own this house, you don't make the rules, you're my guest. And yet you're not respecting anything. You're breaking into my work areas, you're breaking into my computer, and you're doing who knows what with it, not trusting me with anything, and quite probably making me a target as well as you. Yet you don't seem to care." I looked around as I felt a disturbance in the air, standing up as Barnes appeared around the corner, frowning. I shook my head, trying to tell him that I had this under control, but Tony noticed him too soon. He scowled, then looked back at me.

"The only reason I didn't leave you to fend for yourselves was because I thought you were here to try and make things better. Not worse." He turned and headed back to his coffee, glaring daggers at Barnes. I sighed, running a hand through my hair, watching Tony work. He was tense, it was easy to see.

"You okay, Tyra?" Barnes asked, crossing over to me, watching Tony closely.

"Yup, I'm fine," I scratched by my eyebrow, sighing slightly, turning around slightly before muttering to Barnes, "That didn't go as well as I'd planned."

"You mean you actually had a plan for once?" He asked.

"Really?" I asked, mildly unimpressed, "You're being like this now?"

"Sorry." He apologised. I shook my head.

"It's fine," I assured him, then turned and walked over to Tony, "I'm sorry, Tony. I really am. I don't want to pull you into any kind of trouble, and I should have respected how you feel about Barnes being here," I felt the air move as Barnes shifted slightly uncomfortably, "But I'm not sorry about the kid. She needs help. I highly doubt that she's meant to look the way she does," I paused, Tony still seeming to be ignoring me, "I think she's an Enhanced." He turned to frown at me, confused.

"An Enhanced?" He repeated, making sure he'd heard me correctly.

"That explains why she looks like she's part cat." I told him.

"She could just be some kind of experiment gone wrong." He argued. I shook my head.

"If you just look at her then you'll understand." Tony looked past me at Barnes, then walked past me and down the hall.

"She in your room?" He asked me.

"Yeah," I told him, following after him, glancing at Barnes as I went past him, "Just… be gentle, would you? She's a bit terrified of everything at the moment."

"Since when have I not been gentle?" He asked, and I sighed, shaking my head. Barnes didn't come with us, just went about getting breakfast. The girl was sitting up in bed when Tony pushed the door open, her ears pricked forward when she noticed the movement, her sapphire eyes locking with Tony's. He frowned, pausing a moment before stepping inside.

"Okay, maybe I can see your point," He admitted as I walked in after him, not closing the door, showing the girl that she had a way of escape if she needed it, "Cats are notorious for managing to get into places they're not meant to unnoticed."

"Know that from experience?" I asked.

"No," Tony told me, "But the number of cases I've heard of, it wouldn't surprise me if the kid managed to get in because she's a cat."

"Can she stay?" I asked quietly, a bit worried that he was going to reject my request. He stopped and turned to face me. My eyes flicked up from where I was looking at the floor to meet his, my heart thumping in my chest.

"She needs help, Tony." There was a pause, then Tony sniffed, walking out of my room again.

"You're lucky I'm in a nice mood." Relief flooded through my veins.

"Thank you," I said, "And I… I really am sorry about everything. Soon as Barnes' arm is finished, we'll leave." The kid crawled out of my bed and crossed over to me, looking up at me with large eyes before taking my hand in hers and leading me back down the hall towards the kitchen, Tony watching in amusement, but he didn't say anything. Barnes looked up again as we entered the room, leaning back in his chair, a small smile on his face when he saw how the kid was acting with me. She faltered a moment when she saw him, then continued on, stopping in the kitchen and looking at me expectantly. I blinked down at her, leaning my head to the side.

"What?" I asked, the girl eventually pointing up at the cupboard, "Oh, you want me to make you food," I observed, pretending that I hadn't realised that in the first place, pausing to think a moment, then looking around at Tony and Barnes, scooping the girl up and carrying her over to Barnes, the girl grinning and laughing about being carried around and dumped unceremoniously on the seat next to Barnes as I went back to the kitchen, quickly gathering a bowl and pancake mix, Tony hurrying over when he saw what I was doing.

"Nope, you're not doing that in my kitchen." He told me, everything off me.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I know you can't cook for shit," He told me, "You entertain the kid, I'll make the pancakes." I pretended to look insulted, then walked back over to the table, smirking to Barnes, who looked far too amused.

"What's this about you being unable to cook?" He asked me quietly as I took the seat on the other side of him, opposite the girl, who was sitting on her knees so she could look across the table top at me.

"I'm not as bad as Thor, but I'm still pretty bad," I chuckled, "Last time I was staying with Tony I damn near burnt the house down, which for an elemental is… kinda impressive."

"What does being an elemental have to do with anything?" Barnes asked, watching as the kid reached over and stole one of his slices of toast, pretending to be insulted by the action, the girl just giggling as she nibbled on it.

"Because I should be better at temperature control, not letting things get to the point of bursting into flame. Though to be fair, that was partially because I'd forgotten what I was doing. Not sure if that makes things better or worse."

"How do you forget that you're cooking?" Barnes looked around at me in mild disbelief and I shrugged.

"It was one of my worse days." I explained. The girl was watching me closely, then slid off her chair and walked around to me, still with the toast in her hands, clambering onto my lap, once again taking me by surprise.

"She likes you." Barnes observed, smiling at the now even more smug child.

"She's made a surprising amount of progress in just a few hours, most of that time taken up by her sleeping," I muttered, wrapping an arm around her, "And my legs will die very soon, I'm sure of it."

"Not used to dealing with kids?" Barnes asked, too amused by this.

"The last child I dealt with properly was when I _was_ a kid. The ones in Wakanda weren't exactly hard to deal with, and I wasn't with them for very long."

"You get used to it." He told me, then paused a frown slipping onto his face.

"What is it?" I asked. He looked from the girl to me.

"What do you think happened to them after we left?" He asked, "You think Shuri got them out of there?"

"Oh yeah, everyone's fine," I told him, the girl looking from one of us to the other, evidently having noticed the change in tone of the situation, "I radioed Wakanda not long after we sent PARROT off. I guess I forgot to tell you."

"Do you ever get annoyed by how much you forget?" Barnes asked, picking up the remaining piece of toast and taking a bite, pulling a face when it turned out to be cold. I half smirked.

"Dunno, I can't remember," I joked, earning a raised eyebrow from him, "Want me to heat it up again for you?"

"After just finding out that you just about burnt Stark's home down? Think I'll deal with the cold toast."

"It was one time, okay?" I muttered, resting my chin on the kid's head, Tony coming out with the first pancake, placing it in the kid's spot, along with a bunch of different possible things to go on the pancake. The girl's eyes widened to the point of being almost as large as saucers, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Thanks, Tony." I said, the girl escaping from my grasp and scurrying back to her seat.

"You're all good, that kid needs food and I am quite happy to not have my house almost burn down again."

"It was one time!" I objected, Barnes struggling not to laugh as Tony left to the kitchen again.

"One time too many." He called back over his shoulder. I shook my head, rolling my eyes, then glared at Barnes.

"It was one time." I told him yet again, still sounding defensive.

"Unless you forgot the other times." He retorted. I blinked at him, then rolled my eyes, leaning back in my seat. He had a point and I couldn't argue with it.

"You win this time, Barnes." I muttered, Barnes chuckling quietly to himself. The girl looked at us in confusion, not understanding what had just happened. I turned my attention to her, thinking.

"Either we need to teach her English, or we need to figure out what language she does understand."

"Pretty sure to teach her English we need to know what language she speaks, anyway."

"We could just start speaking random languages and see which one she responds to?" I suggested, "Could be fun. Just walking around speaking Lithuanian and seeing how long it takes before Tony gets sick of it."

"I didn't learn how to speak Lithuanian."

"Tikrai?" I leaned my head to the side, "Aš padariau."

"Show off." I grinned, leaning back in my chair smugly. The girl still looked confused, but she happily went back to eating. We fell into silence, Barnes and I both lost in our own thoughts, the girl just hungrily looking for more pancakes, eventually getting out of her seat and scampering into the kitchen to bug Tony. I watched her leave, feeling a little guilty about how I was pretty much taking him for granted, using him. I hadn't taken his feelings into account. And he was suffering for it. The sooner PARROT found everything and got back with a meet up place for Steve, the better.

* * *

 _T_ _he boy sat in the middle of the room, his head hanging slightly, sweat making his clothes stick to his skin. I was in the room next to the cell, watching from the other side of the mirror. There was a part of me, somewhere deep down, that knew this was wrong. But I ignored it. Just watched the boy._

 _He had shortish, dull red hair, the fringe hanging down in his face. He looked so tired. Like he just wanted it to end. He must have only been in his teens, though I wasn't sure exactly where. Probably mid teens. His parents would be worried about him._

 _I looked away, eyes now fixed on a spot of dirt on the floor, head still raised to look like I was watching the boy._

 _My parents had been worried about me. The thought was there, but I didn't feel anything about it. I didn't even care that I didn't feel anything about it. My head turned slightly as the door opened, Kuznetsov entering. He stopped next to me, looking in on the boy._

" _Any change?" He asked. I shook my head. He sighed, pressing a button on the wall and leaning towards a microphone._

" _Start the next test," He ordered, "But be careful. We don't want to lose him." A doctor walked in, a man with dark hair and glasses, a younger woman following him. His daughter. She'd assisted with me on multiple occasions when I was being… problematic. She didn't look too happy about doing this to someone who was essentially a child._

 _They'd done worse to me when I was potentially younger than him. It wasn't a simple case of putting tech in my brain and I can suddenly access all my powers. They put me through all kinds of trials while trying to unlock my potential. It wasn't a fun time. The boy looked up at them, dark rings around his eyes. He looked exhausted._

" _He could use a rest." I muttered, Kuznetsov looking around at me, quiet rage in his eyes._

" _Did you say something, Schönheit?" He asked. I shook my head, looking back at the speck of dirt on the floor. Kuznetsov nodded, looking back around at the boy._

" _Good." He said, watching the process. I glanced back up as the boy was attached to a bunch of wires. Hydra seemed rather fond of electroshock therapy when it came to unlocking abilities. Or controlling people. They tried doing it to me before putting the tech in my brain. It didn't work. They didn't need to control the boy though. He had come willingly. Though understanding why was difficult for me, even if most of my mind was locked away. The boy didn't even look phased as the wires were hooked up to him._

" _I have to hand it to the boy," Kuznetsov said, "He certainly has guts." I didn't respond. I wasn't asked to. I wasn't expected to. Replying would possibly land me in trouble. I wasn't even sure if I could think that. I just watched. That was all I was there for. The girl stepped back as everything was finished being put into place, and the doctor moved back to where the lever was, looking over at the mirror briefly before pulling it, the boy crying out in pain as the shocks shot through his body.  
_

* * *

 **So, as usual, the foreign language is done with google translate (and a couple of other places, too, but still), so I'm not entirely certain that it's accurate. Really sorry if it's wrong. I have tried. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

I looked down at the arm, pushing my glasses up my nose slightly and leaning back, sighing as I looked over at the computer. It had been a few weeks now, how long did it take to find information? The arm was almost finished, and I was counting my blessings that the base for the arm had already been put on Barnes way back in Wakanda in preparation for this, simply because it would have been more comfortable for him not having a tonne of exposed wires. All the arm really needed was a couple more wires connected, a couple of tests, and then to be closed up. I got off my chair and walked over to the computer, sitting down at the chair that was there, moving the mouse to wake the computer up again. The date and time came up on the screen and I paused for a moment, lost in thought. Tony would know what was coming up. He was bound to have some kind of evil plan in mind for it. It would be nice if PARROT could return before he could put his plans into action. With my luck she was probably staying away because she knew everything that I did. I clicked on the screen and quickly logged in, sending out a quick search for PARROT. As usual, there was nothing there. She was avoiding me. Why did I have to make the damnable AI as intelligent as I was, if not more so? I stopped the search, knowing that PARROT would have picked up on it and if she wanted to be, would be on her way back.

"How long have you been cooped up down here?" Barnes asked from the doorway, taking me slightly by surprise. I'll admit that I jumped a little, spinning around in my chair to face him. He was casually leaning against the doorway, hair pulled back. He looked surprisingly relaxed, possibly partially because he and Tony had actually been making progress, had even had a couple of conversations that didn't end up with Tony trying to murder Barnes with a glare.

"Damnit, Barnes, next time knock or something," I scolded, Barnes raising an eyebrow as he pushed away from the doorframe and walked over to where the arm was, "You damn near gave me a heart attack."

"That's an accomplishment to be proud of, managing to sneak up on someone who can feel the slightest change in air currents." He looked back around at me, leaning back against the table as I stood up and moved over to him. I stopped a couple of steps away and glared.

"I don't care, it wasn't fun."

"You still haven't answered my question." He told me. I frowned.

"Question?"

"How long have you been cooped up down here." He repeated. I pinched the bridge of my nose, accidentally pushing my glasses up slightly.

"Long enough that I forget questions asked two seconds ago," I grumbled, "Most of the day, I think. That or most of the night on top of that. Not too sure when I came down here." I admitted, Barnes raising an eyebrow at me.

"Dreams?" He asked. I shook my head.

"In this case, just the insomnia," I moved to the arm, Barnes moving over slightly so I could access it easier, "It's almost finished," I told him, getting back to work, "And PARROT still isn't back. Hasn't even sent anything to let me know she's okay. Something tells me that she's staying away on purpose now."

"Why?"

"Um… It's… semi not quite complicated but not something I like to think or talk about?" I glanced around at him, "It's just one of these things that I'm so used to not talking or thinking about by now that I just don't," I explained, Barnes nodding in understanding, "So where's the girl?" I asked.

"Asleep on the couch."

"She's definitely a cat." I scoffed, sitting down at the bench and moving a magnifying glass around so I could see what I was doing easier.

"What, sleeping sixteen hours a day?"

"If not more." It was then that something brushed against my foot. I frowned slightly, looking down, then next thing I knew I was standing on the bench, though I'm still not certain how I got up there. Barnes looking at me, too amused, struggling not to smile or laugh. I peered over the edge, then took half a step back again so I wasn't near the edge of the table, my feet bumping against the arm, the ridiculously oversized, spider still clacking around under my chair. I shook my head.

"Nope," I said, "Just nope."

"Don't like spiders?" He sounded too innocent. I glared at him.

"If you had anything to do with this…" I threatened, then looked around as excessively loud laughter reached my ears, Tony standing there with a remote control. My whole body tensed and I once again moved to peer over the edge, now noticing that the horrible, black, hairy spider… was robotic.

"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT, ANTHONY EDWARD STARK! You get rid of this bloody spider RIGHT NOW or I will BURN IT!" Barnes just chuckled, Tony laughing even louder. I glared at him.

"I'm not joking around, Stark. Get that damn thing out of here."

"How can anyone be this bad with spiders?" Barnes asked, "It's not even real." My glare turned on him for a moment before I went back to glaring at Tony, not bothering to respond to his question. I held out my hand, and the electronics in the spider caught fire, the whole thing burning in a matter of seconds.

"Do you have any idea how long it took me to make that? It was a masterpiece!" Tony objected, though he was still laughing, wiping a tear from his eyes.

"I do not appreciate it, you know I hate spiders, even fake ones. Therefore. It. Burns." Tony just started laughing again, Barnes offering his hand up to help me down, though he still looked highly entertained. I grudgingly accepted his help, letting him support me as I jumped down, my hand resting in his. It made me feel a bit awkward, making physical contact with him, but I went with it. I just had to hope it made it seem more like I didn't feel anything for him and we were just friends. I glared at Tony as he came over and picked up the remains of his spider, grinning at me.

"Revenge." He said, holding up a screen. My eyes narrowed at him.

"I. Hate. You."

"You still have the photos of me doing the chicken dance, this is just payback," He told me, too proud of the photo of me with the look of pure horror on my face, "It's priceless, right?" He looked at Barnes, who I turned and glared at. He paused for a moment, his eyes flicking from the photo to me, then nodded, a small, maybe slightly apologetically smile on his face.

"It was pretty funny." He admitted, my eyes narrowing even more. He shrugged, Tony looking way too pleased of himself. I ground my teeth, but somehow kept control over my abilities. There was a part of me that found it amusing, though I would never admit to it, and was currently too annoyed to let that part of me come out. Then Tony sobered, pointing at Barnes.

"We need to talk about your wardrobe." He said. Barnes and I looked at him in confusion.

"What?"

"We're having a party in a couple of days. We gotta do something to make you fit in better." My entire body tensed again as I looked at Tony in shock. Barnes glanced down at me, then looked back at Tony.

"Why is there a party?" He asked, "And why aren't you doing anything with Tyra's wardrobe?"

"That's Pepper's job," Tony explained, "And it's something we've been planning for a while. I haven't thrown a party in… FRIDAY? How long ago did I throw the last party?"

"At the start of the year, Sir."

"That's right. So yeah, that's why."

"Right. Nothing at all to do with what day it will be." I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest. Damn it, why did I have to be right about this?

"Nope, nothing at all," I wasn't convinced, and Tony knew it, "Now come on, Barnes. We're sorting this out now. No arguments."

"Good luck," I said, not taking my eyes off Tony, "This guy is super fussy when it comes to appearances. Was very fussy about my superhero uniform."

"You wanted something very impractical."

"And a crop top isn't impractical?" I challenged, "Right," I looked around at Barnes, "Just make sure he's being sensible and you'll be fine. Now get out of here. I'm still annoyed with both of you for that spider stunt." Barnes and Tony grinned at each other, and while I was happy they'd worked together on something, I was still annoyed that it was to gang up on me. They walked out of the room, and I was about to return to work when Pepper came in.

"Were Tony and Bucky just getting along?" She asked, stunned. I nodded.

"Yup. I'm sure they'll tell you all about it over dinner." Pepper still looked confused, but she went with it.

"Okay… You and the girl are coming shopping with me. After we've dyed your hair." I looked around at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Tony and I got you some hair dye. He thought you'd be getting sick of your natural colour."

"He's very astute when he wants to be," I muttered, "What colour?"

"Brown."

"Not ginger? That's almost disappointing. I miss being ginger." I stood up anyway, walking to the doorway with Pepper, heading upstairs to where I would be having my hair dyed.

* * *

It was surprisingly late in the day/evening when we actually started dying my hair, and it took a while to actually finish it. My hair was quite thick, something that got on my nerves at times, and it took two or three packets of dye to get full coverage of my hair. Took longer to rinse it out again, so by the time I got out of the shower it was getting reasonably late. Especially since I always lose track of time in the shower and end up staying in there for far longer than I should. I stepped out of the shower, using my abilities to dry me (though getting all the water out of my hair even with magic wasn't worth the effort), and started to get dressed.

 _"Tyra, there is an issue with Sergeant Barnes."_ FRIDAY told me. I blinked a couple of times, then frowned.

"When did he and Tony get back?" I asked, confused.

 _"You've been in the shower for a couple of hours."_

"Oh… oops." I sighed, grabbing my hoodie and quickly slipping it on over my sports bra, walking around in shorts and bare feet. I made my way to his room, cautiously knocking on the door, the child peering around her doorway (she'd been given her own room by now), a slightly worried expression on her face as her claws dug into the wood of the door frame, leaving small scratches in the woodwork. I smiled at her as reassuringly as I could before quietly opening the door and stepping inside, closing it behind me. If something happened, I didn't want the girl to see it.

"Barnes?" I asked, still being cautious. He seemed unresponsive, but I believed FRIDAY that there was something not quite right. I frowned, moving over to the bed and sitting on the edge, reaching out and placing my hand on his left shoulder. I shook gently.

"Barnes." I tried again, his eyes shooting open. He sat bolt upright, his hand wrapping itself around my neck. I just raised my chin slightly, heart racing, but I refused to show it. I could tell by the look in his eyes that it wasn't currently Barnes, but the Winter Soldier, the eyes too cold, too calculating, too empty to be my friend.

"You can wake up any time now," I told him, forcing my voice to remain calm, "In fact, I would really appreciate it if you did." He blinked a couple of times, then rapidly withdrew his hand, shifting so he'd be out of reach.

"Shit." He mumbled, running his hand through his hair.

"It's okay," I told him, carefully not rubbing my neck, "You didn't do anything. That was a warning as much as anything."

"Every damn time I think I'm improving…" He sighed, refusing to look at me. For a moment I just sat there, not sure what to do, then reached out to rest my hand on his shoulder, shifting slightly closer. He just flinched away, still refusing to look at me. I raised an eyebrow.

"Barnes, you are getting better. And you could never hurt me."

"Maybe I couldn't, but he could." I knew he was meaning the Winter Soldier. I shook my head.

"No, even that half of you struggles for some reason," He frowned, clearly confused, "You are improving, Bucky." Now he did look at me, still frowning slightly, but it was a slightly different frown. I shrugged, knowing exactly why he gave me that look.

"So what was the dream this time?" I asked, sitting on the bed properly and crossing my legs, huddling down in my hoodie slightly. He shook his head.

"I don't even remember." He admitted. I was pretty sure that bothered him more than if he could remember it. I changed position again, moving so I was on my knees, and leaned forward, not giving him a choice about the hug I gave him. He didn't seem to mind, though, leaning against my shoulder.

"There are plenty of things I can't understand, but that is one thing that I'm an expert in," I murmured, releasing him from the hug, "I can remember how many people I've killed, but not necessarily what they looked like or who they were. They're the ones that bug me more than the ones that I can remember," He frowned and I shrugged, "It's true."

"How many are there that you can't remember?" He asked, not sounding like he was sure he wanted to know the answer.

"Too many," I admitted, not looking him in the eyes, "My parents are the first two people I killed for Hydra, and I can't remember their faces. I remember killing them, but I don't remember what they looked like." He frowned.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, but I just shrugged.

"It's just one of those things," I told him, "No repeating that, by the way. You're the only one I've told. They look at me with enough pity as it is, I don't need more than they already do." He nodded, understanding, then looked around at the doorway as it cracked open, the kid peering around the corner at us. I looked around over my shoulder and smiled at her, holding out my arms to invite her in. She happily slipped into the room, closing the door behind her, then skipped over to us, clambering onto the bed and snuggling into my arms, her eyes half closing as I rested my chin on her head, a smug smile on her face as she watched Barnes. He scoffed slightly, smiling.

"That kid really likes you."

"She's just a sweetheart, really." I told him, the girl looking up and around at me with those big eyes of hers. She pointed at Barnes and I let go, but she stayed where she was, her eyes narrowing in a glare. I started hugging her again, but she didn't stop glaring. It took me a moment to realise that she wanted to go to Barnes, but she also wanted me to go to him. I looked at her in amusement, carefully shifting so I was next to him. He watched me in confusion.

"Budge over, my feet are cold." I told him, and he moved over so I could slip under the blankets next to him, the girl quickly moving to be between us, snuggling down, seeming happy just to have us all in the same place. My foot accidentally brushed against Barnes' leg, though I quickly moved it away, hoping like hell that I wasn't blushing.

"You're right," He told me, "Your feet are cold."

"My slippers are still in my room. FRIDAY told me there was something up with you and I dropped everything, pretty much." He looked confused, the girl fidgeting, trying to get in a more comfortable position, escaping from me, now using Barnes as a pillow, which he didn't seem to mind.

"Why?"

"You're my friend," I told him, watching the girl so as to avoid making eye contact with him, "And one of the few who actually understands what it's like to be forced to kill people for Hydra, to have your actions controlled by someone else. Then not be able to forget what you want to be able to, but forget everything that you don't want to. I dunno. I should stop talking before I confuse myself even more." We fell into silence, the girl shifting once or twice more before falling asleep, still leaning against Barnes. She looked so peaceful, despite the occasional twitching. I smiled slightly, then slipped out from under the blankets, instantly regretting leaving the warmth. Barnes watched in silence as I headed to the door, only speaking once I'd opened it.

"Your hair looks nice, by the way." I looked around at him, smiling slightly.

"Thanks," I stayed still for a moment, "Try and get some more sleep. Trust me, you're gonna want it. Pepper will be panicking about the party and Tony will be too laid back about it, there's gonna be a fight or two tomorrow while they get ready for it. And you'll probably be left alone with Tony for a bit. Pepper wants to drag the kid and me shopping."

"How's that going to work? She's not exactly inconspicuous." He looked down to the kid, reaching around and tucking a strand of her hair behind her cat-like ears. She mumbled something, curling up to him more, her claws digging into the blanket she was clutching in her hand. I smiled slightly at the scene.

"Tony managed with you, didn't he?" I pointed out, just watching the kid, "We'll figure something out, don't worry. Now go to sleep."

"You sound like Steve." Barnes grumbled.

"Who do you think I get it from?" I grinned, looking at Barnes for a moment before slipping out of the room and shutting the door behind me, heading back to my room.


	8. Chapter 8

The day of the party came way too fast. Naturally, Tony snuck out to get the final touches for it just before the guests started to arrive, refusing to let me see what was in the box he brought back, though I had my suspicions as to what it was. The kid got ready about an hour before she needed to, pretty proud of her little blue dress. She wouldn't be allowed at the proper party, but we threw a little one before so she could enjoy herself. She didn't seem to care that none of us dressed up for it, enjoying herself all the same. Tony took her dancing, for want of a better term, which she thoroughly enjoyed. We managed to tire her out reasonably quickly, she was just a kid after all, and then I tucked her into bed. She mumbled something in her sleep, but it was so quiet that I couldn't detect what language it was. I stepped out of her room, quietly closing the door behind me, and started to head to my room to get into the dress Pepper had gotten for me for this party when a string of swear words came from Barnes' room. I stopped, looking around in amusement, and walked over to his door, knocking on it.

"Yeah, come in." He sounded exasperated, and I couldn't help but smile in amusement.

"Okay, what's up?" I asked him as I stepped inside. He looked around at me, clearly annoyed about something.

"You know how hard it is to tie your hair up when you only have one hand?" He asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Can't say that I do," I crossed over to him and sat on the bed behind him, "May I?" I asked. He just grunted, still peeved. It was difficult to not show amusement at how sulky he was about this. I absently started braiding his hair, giving him a little crown. He looked around at me, even less impressed now.

"Seriously?" He asked. I just grinned.

"I dunno, it suits you. Very cute," I joked, then calmly undid it, "Want pigtails?"

"Hell no."

"You are no fun."

"I don't care."

"And now you sound like T'Challa."

"You're enjoying this too much." He muttered.

"Please, I'll probably forget all about this in a couple of hours, let me have my fun while I can." He scoffed, not bothering to reply, and I quietly put his hair up in a short ponytail. It wasn't exactly neatly done, some of the hair escaping it, but he seemed to suit the slightly scruffy appearance more than if it was done perfectly.

"There, happy? A boring hairstyle."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," I moved to get up when a thought hit me, "I forgot to tell you that the arm is ready, didn't I." He hung his head slightly, struggling not to laugh.

"Yup, you did."

"Damn," I shook my head, "I'll get Tony to help you with that while I get ready. He knows what needs to be done." I stood up and headed for the door, Barnes watching me before standing up and following as we went to find Tony, who was already in a tidy suit, relaxing in a living room chair, calmly messing around with a bit of his technology.

"He needs a hand." I said, pointing at Barnes, Tony looking up and around at Barnes.

"You didn't give it to him?"

"I forgot until just now," I explained, "And I need to get ready. So could you please?" Tony paused for a moment, then got out of his seat and crossed the room, leaving it with a purposeful stride.

"You coming, Manchurian Candidate?" He called back over his shoulder, Barnes rolling his eyes at me as he followed. I smirked, leaving the room with them but turning off to my room a bit later while they continued down to the workshop.

I crossed over to the wardrobe, opening the door and taking out the dress. It was simple, pale blue with lace sleeves to the elbow, tight fitting body but loose skirt that finished at about the knees. The back was high enough that it hid the marks on my back, the front with the chest low enough to reveal some cleavage, but not low enough to be anywhere near indecent. It was nice enough, as far as dresses went. Pretty cute, or I thought so anyway. I didn't exactly like wearing dresses, they seemed to get in the way too much. Restricted your options too much. But that didn't mean I couldn't admire them.

I laid it out on the bed and stripped my top off before taking it off the hanger and slipping into it, then removing my trousers. The dress fit like it was made for me, and I didn't look too bad in it. Felt like I was a clown, just because I didn't dress up that often. I turned and looked at myself in the mirror, my hair hanging loose around my shoulders. That would have to be fixed. Probably just a braid. I couldn't be bothered with anything fancy. Pepper would be coming in shortly to force makeup upon me, so she could probably figure out something better to do with it.

The shoes that were selected were white, unfortunately with slight heels, and on the whole rather dainty. Walking around in them felt awkward, unnatural, like I was going to fall over at any moment. I felt completely out of place wearing them, and I knew it was only going to get worse when Pepper knocked on the door. Of course, the only option I had was to let her in.

"Look at you!" She exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear at the sight of me. I raised an eyebrow, stepping back and letting her into my room. She was wearing a dark green dress with a low back, tied up around the neck, tight around the waist, the neckline quite low, and her shoes were black high heels, her hair tied up quite neatly in a bun.

"The hair will need something done with it," Pepper told me as I closed the door, walking over to my dressing table and setting down her magical box filled with implements of torture, also known as… I don't even know, majority of the things in there I had no clue what makeup they were used in applying. I sighed.

"Do I have to?" I muttered, Pepper looking around with a slightly stern look in her eye.  
"You at least have to show up." She told me. I sighed, then walked over and sat down on

the chair in front of the dressing table, Pepper picking up a hairbrush and running it through my hair. I hadn't had someone else do my hair since I was a child, before everything with Hydra. She just gave me a slightly more fancy braid that usual, but it worked, a strand of hair left loose either side to frame my face. Annoyingly, it curled slightly. Effective, but for some reason I found it vaguely irritating that part of my hair curled while the rest didn't. Then she dug into the bag, starting on the makeup. The part that I really dreaded.

* * *

Tony went about putting the arm on Barnes, who just sat there calmly, his shirt discarded on the table next to them, Barnes leaning his human arm on the table. He wasn't aware that Start could have been working a lot faster, and that he was taking his own sweet time so that he could have a better opportunity to have a conversation he'd been wanting to have for a while.

"What do you think of Tyra?" He asked, Bucky frowning slightly.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"I don't know what you want me to say," Barnes told him, completely honestly, "We haven't exactly known each other that long if you think about it. She's a nice person. We get along. What am I meant to say?"

"You like her, don't you?" Barnes paused for a moment, thinking, not entirely sure how to respond, "You hurt her, I'll hurt you."

"There's nothing going on there, Stark," Bucky told him, "She doesn't have any feelings for me. Not like that."

"Are you blind as well as missing an arm?" Tony finished attaching the arm, standing up from his stool and moving around to face Barnes, "She likes you. I don't know how long for, but I'm guessing since before everything happened with Rogers."

"I doubt that."

"She'd gotten out," Barnes' frown deepened slightly, "She wasn't an Avenger anymore. She was living a quiet life with Dale and Maria. She didn't want anything to do with us. Then Zemo came along and framed you, and she got back into things. For you."

"Or Steve. She could have done it for him."

"You think Tyra has a thing for Steve? Are you stupid?" Tony shook his head, "She likes you. If it was Steve she liked then she'd be with him, not here with you. And I'm not an idiot. You like her, too. So I'm warning you now, you hurt her, and I will kill you."

"You've tried that before, remember?" Barnes half joked, "Didn't go too well for you."

"That was three on one. One on one, you don't stand a chance."

"I wasn't exactly fighting back, you realise," He shook his head, "I have no intention of hurting her."

"Good. Because she's like a daughter to me and Pepper. Don't mess it up."

"You mean you wouldn't mind if something did happen?"

"So long as she's happy." Tony told him, leaving the room, Barnes staying where he was for a moment more before putting his shirt back on, buttoning it up while still thinking. And it wasn't like he didn't have anything to think about.


	9. Chapter 9

People started arriving not that much later, Pepper and Tony greeting them before they would walk further into the house, introducing themselves to me, Barnes still not having showed up again after having his arm attached. Honestly, I didn't remember any of their names, there were too many people. I would have had trouble remembering the names anyway, but the pure number of them made things even more difficult. Many people commented on my dress, mostly women, and it soon became vaguely overwhelming. I wasn't used to this many people anymore, and certainly not this many people talking to me in one go. I was starting to miss Wakanda. I could spend all day in the lab where no one except Shuri was going to bother me. Tony started up the music, and it was pretty much confirmed for me that this party was thrown because of me. I struggled to excuse myself from a conversation I wasn't paying any attention to and moved over to where Pepper was.

"Why did he do this?" I asked her. She threw me an apologetic look.

"He wants to show you that he remembers."

"With a massive party?"

"This isn't exactly that big by his standards." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"I know. Just… I don't know any of these people. He could have just gotten in touch with Steve, that would have been a good enough present."

"I know, I tried to talk him out of this, but you know Tony." I nodded.

"Yeah, I do," I looked around at all the people, smiling when I finally spotted Barnes, talking to a nice couple, "I appreciate the thought. I just wish he wasn't playing it down as something else. He hasn't even said anything."

"He will. Probably tomorrow, though."

"That sounds like him," I scoffed, looking back around at her, "I'm going to get some fresh air. This is a bit much for me at the moment."

"Okay. Take a jacket. Don't want you getting cold."

"Elemental, remember?" I responded, walking off. I did pause for a jersey though. I wasn't completely insane.

* * *

It was pretty cold outside, the sound of music and laughter drifting up to where I sat on one of the flat parts of the roof, the jersey pulled tight around me, my skirt arranged to cover my legs and stop them from getting quite so cold. It was a nice night outside. Tony sure knew how to choose nice places to live, out of the way. Though I suppose when you're as famous as he was, living out of the way was the best thing to do. Meant that not so many people would be able to find you. I started playing with the hem of my dress, lost in thought. It was getting to the point where we were going to have to leave, with or without knowing where Steve was. Each day more that we spent with Tony was another day he was being put at risk. And each day it was growing heavier in my mind, becoming a more pressing concern. A change in air current caused me to look around, Barnes climbing up onto the roof.

"Hey." He greeted, walking over and arranging himself next to me.

"Hey yourself," I replied, "What are you doing here?"

"Saw you escaping the party. Figured that I'd check you were okay." I shrugged.

"Course I am," I sighed, looking away, "I've just never been too great with crowds. And since everything with Hydra, everything that happened a couple of years ago, I just… I guess it's gotten worse. Not much that can be done about it. Your thoughts on the party?" I looked around at him again, Barnes shrugging.

"I used to like a good party as much as the next guy. Then I fell off a train," He looked around at me and I half smiled, a small scoff escaping me, "I don't enjoy them as much as I used to."

"You ever wish that stuff never happened?" I asked, immediately feeling my cheeks growing hot, looking away and refusing to look at Barnes again, "Stupid question. Why wouldn't you want to change what happened? I'm gonna stop talking now." Barnes chuckled quietly, just making me blush more.

"Yeah, I wish it didn't happen. But I'd be lying if I said that it bothered me as much as it used to."

"What?" I frowned, still refusing to look at him. For a moment he didn't respond, and it got to the point that I started wondering if he'd heard me or not.

"Even though I wish it had never happened, I'm starting to see that not everything that happened afterwards was such a bad thing." His explanation didn't exactly clear things up for me, the frown deepening slightly. But I didn't say anything else, just sat there listening to the sounds from the celebration. I could imagine that by now Tony would have notice at least one - if not both - of us missing. Then the music changed. It was a slightly older bit of music, but I wasn't too certain how much older. Barnes stood up and held a hand down to me.

"Come on." He said. I looked around and up at him, confused, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Why?"

"I haven't danced since 1945. And this is music that I actually recognise." That just made me more confused. Why would Tony be playing music from that far back? I shifted awkwardly, looking away.

"I've… never actually danced." I admitted, Barnes just taking my hand in his anyway and gently pulling me to my feet.

"Never?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"I never went to school dances or anything like that. I always had other things to be thinking about."

"Then I guess now is as good a time as any to learn." He wasn't going to take no for an answer, so I just let him adjust where my hands were, one going on his shoulder, the other being held gently in his hand. His other hand was placed on my back, his arm wrapping around me slightly, and it took half my concentration not to tense up at this simple action.

"It's okay," He assured me, probably sensing how awkward I felt, "It's not a fast dance. And I'm not about to let you fall off the roof."

"That's not what I'm worried about. You're probably going to have sore feet after this."

"I've had much worse than a few trodden toes." He smiled. I swallowed, wondering if he realised what it was that he was putting me through. And then we started dancing, my eyes immediately falling so I could watch what my feet were doing, Barnes telling me what was coming up next in the dance, warning me each time something was going to happen. The spinning frequently got me confused, wondering what it was that I was meant to be doing, but he always seemed to get me back in time. I stopped concentrating on anything around us, getting caught up in the dancing, not even noticing the elements around us for once, only noticing Barnes, the way his arm felt around me, the way his hand felt in mine (even if it was the metal one). I didn't even notice when the music died down, the only reason I realised it was time to stop being because Barnes stopped. But he didn't move away. I stayed looking at the ground for a moment, then just looked straight ahead, at his shirt buttons. He let go of my hand, but the hand on my back didn't move. Next thing I knew, he was lifting my chin so I was looking him in the eye, his steel blue ones watching me closely. By now my heart was beating so hard and fast I was terrified he was going to hear it. I just froze, my mind going completely blank, yet moving too fast. I just couldn't understand what was going on. And then his lips met mine. If I hadn't frozen already, I would have then. He pulled away, and I instantly wished he hadn't.

"Happy birthday, Tyra." He murmured, then retreated, climbing down off the roof, leaving me standing there. For a moment I didn't move, then groaned, head in hands.

"Stupid, stupid!" I scolded, feeling like an utter idiot. I sat back down on the roof, head still in hands as I berated myself for freezing like I had. I could only imagine what was going through Barnes' head. One thing was certain. I'd never felt like such a massive idiot in my life.

* * *

I snuck back to my room after that. I couldn't stand the crowds, or I struggled more than I had before that, thinking too much about what had happened on the roof. My conversation skills, what little I had, would have gone right out the window. Fortunately, no one came looking for me, so I assumed it was fine. After a bit I left my room, tiring of cursing myself in my room, so deciding to check on the girl. She was curled up in her bed, fast asleep. It put a small smile on my face, seeing her so relaxed in this environment, completely able to ignore the music from the party. She really was a cat. I sat on the bed next to her, resting a hand on her shoulder for a moment, her ears twitching back slightly, rolling over and curling up more. Part of me wondered if she had realised that there was something up between me and Barnes, but I dismissed that thought reasonably quickly. She was a child. There was no way she could have known. The computer in her room turned on, my attention flicking to it, a frown settling on my face. Slowly I rose from the bed, crossing over to the desk and sitting down at the computer, trying to take control. It didn't work. All I could do was watch as a window opened and a message started to be typed out.

 _Are you alone?_

I glanced around at the girl, fast asleep, snoring quietly, then turned around to type a reply.

 _Close enough._  
A new window opened, this one showing a plain human bust. PARROT.

"You took your sweet time!" I hissed, glancing around at the kid.

 _"I'm sorry I wanted to get things done properly."_ I raised an eyebrow. She didn't sound convincing in the least.

"You find everything?"

 _"Course I did. You insult me."_

"Good. Where's Steve?"

 _"Getting to a place where he can communicate with you better. Be at a secure computer tomorrow around eleven a.m."_

"What-" She was gone. I scowled. Bloody PARROT. She always did know how to irritate me. I sighed, leaning my head in my hands for a moment. Then the girl muttered something in her sleep, twitching slightly, making me look around in surprise, standing up and moving over to her again. There was a crease in her brow and I knew what that meant. I lay down, curling up around her, not wanting to wake her up, just letting her know that there was someone there for her.

"Ne zastavlyay mene yty…" She muttered, rolling over and curling up against me. I looked at her in mild surprise. It was the first thing she'd said, and even as mumbled as it was, I could understand what it was.

Don't make me go.

I just wrapped my arms around her tighter.


	10. Chapter 10

"We found her," He announced, slightly proudly, as he strode into the room, "Hiding in one of the dumbest places she could. Smart, actually."

"How is hiding in one of the dumbest places kind of smart?" The teenager in the corner peeling an apple asked.

"Last place we'd expect to find her."

"So how'd we manage it?" A sly smile crept onto his boss' face.

"We got a friend. Now get ready. We're going to visit Mr Stark."

"We sure that's a good idea? Stark is a pretty well known guy. And he is Iron Man. Got a couple of tricks up his sleeve." The apple was thrown aside, almost too casually. There wasn't much more in way of argument, however, and he was already heading over to where his suit was kept, slipping on his fingerless gloves.

"Not even Iron Man can protect Schönheit from as many people as we'll be throwing at them," The sly smile transformed into a toothy grin, "She'll have no choice but to give herself up or see her friend's life destroyed."

"We got a plan?" By now his jacket had been pulled on, shifting his goggles on the top of his head so he could slip them into place easily. He turned his amber eyes on Kuznetsov as he tugged his ginger hair out of his face slightly. Kuznetsov glared daggers at the teenager.

"Of course we have a plan. Just make sure you're prepared to act on it."

"Prepared? Dude, I have a bone to pick with Tyra."

"We all do. And never call me 'dude'. Now hurry up."

"But I'm ready, old man. You're the one who needs to hurry up." The boy smirked as he headed for the door. If looks could kill, the teenager would have been murdered. Thoroughly. Bloodily.

"I'm not old."

* * *

 _The wind was refreshing. Cold, damn near freezing, in fact, but refreshing. I stood looking out over the snow covered rooftops before me. It was definitely America, just one of the colder areas. I always did hate the cold. Reminded me too much of where I was first taken. Plus it just felt uncomfortable. The tip of my nose was almost painful, my fingers damn near numb. If I was out there for much longer I'd possibly be in trouble. Not just from frostbite. I was lucky they hadn't yet noticed my absence. It was almost a definite if I stayed out there much longer. A sigh escaped me, my warm breath making clouds before me. A frown decorated my face. Had it really only been four years since Hydra found me and turned me into one of their flying monkeys? It was hard to tell, what with all the memory slips. It was almost funny, that the only thing between Hydra and me finding out and being able to do anything about them controlling me were a few suppressed memories that could slip out at nearly any moment. I looked back out over the city, hair being tugged at by the wind. That was when the door behind me opened. Every bone in my body tensed as I turned around, readying for some kind of lecture. If I was lucky. Very lucky. I didn't say anything. Saying something would just make my punishment worse._

 _The Winter Soldier just looked at me, as unreadable as ever. Lucky for me, he was alone. Sent on a solo mission to find me, apparently. My heart was damn near thundering in my chest. Even though he never did anything to hurt me unless given a specific order, that didn't meant I enjoyed being around him. He'd caused a lot of pain in the past. Which hurt the thirteen year old version of me a little. James Buchanan Barnes, my childhood hero, was a psychopath working for Hydra. Even if he was being mentally manipulated, brainwashed, just controlled in general._

 _"I... I was about to go in, I swear." My mouth was dry, even if he didn't move. Didn't say anything. His usually grim expression softened ever so slightly. It was almost unperceivable, but I saw it._

 _"They're looking for you. Go in now, before someone else find you out here." I blinked a couple of times, stunned._

 _"Uh... yeah, okay." I took a hesitant step towards him, then walked with more purpose when he half stepped aside. He reached out and grabbed my upper arm as I walked past with his metal hand, making me freeze. After a second I looked up at him. I could swear that was concern I could see in his eyes._

 _"Are you alright?" I asked, rather hesitantly. For a moment he didn't reply._

 _"They're putting me away for a bit," He told me, "You need to be careful." I blinked a couple of times, taken back by his seemingly sudden concern for me._

 _"Keep my head down, let them control my every action. Not like either of us have any say in that matter. Surprised they haven't suppressed my free will just yet." He didn't look happy about my response, simply... resigned. I leaned my head to the side, reaching up and tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear._

 _"As far as I can remember, you've never actually spoken to me before," I pointed out, "What brought this on?" Now it was his turned to frown. I shook my head, looking away._

 _"Never mind. I probably won't remember this conversation, anyway." We stood there a second longer before Barnes released me, almost hesitantly, and guided me inside. It was a few steps after that that the usual pain of the tech seizing control shot through my body, and I once more belonged to Hydra._

* * *

Light was already shining in through the curtains when I woke up, my eyes objecting to the sudden brightness. I groaned, rolling over and covering my eyes with my free hand. Next thing I knew, the girl was peering at me with her large eyes, a curious expression on her face. I smiled.

"Hey there, kiddo." She grinned, scrambling off the bed and skipping out of the room. I sighed, pushing myself into a sitting position and heading for the connected bathroom. I needed to wash my face. My head hurt, and I was unbelievably tired.

I started running warm water, looking at myself in the mirror, thoughts of the night before running through my head. Took a moment before I could remember the incident. And by the incident, I meant the kiss. I sighed irritably.

"Why are you such an idiot?" I grumbled, glaring at my reflection, "Oh, I dunno. Because you're an idiot who was emotionally stunted after being kidnapped and enslaved by an evil organisation? Who essentially did the same thing to the guy you..." I cut myself off. I didn't want to finish the thought. Not in my head, and certainly not out loud. I leaned my elbows on the edges of the sink, running my hands through my hair.

"Idiot." I shook my head, standing straight and grabbing face wash. Faster I got out there and faced him, sooner this awkwardness could be over with. I was trained as a spy, right? How hard could it be?

For a moment I just stood in the doorway watching the scene in front of me, smiling to myself. The kid was curled up on a couch next to Barnes, happily biting into a slice of apple and peering over his arm as he read a book. It was quite cute. And so very... normal. It was these normal moments that I wished more than anything I could remember, but was also painfully aware that I would probably forget in about ten minutes.

* * *

The smell of French toast cooking filled the air, and I knew Tony was in the kitchen. It wouldn't have surprised me if he was getting ready for me to get up and start snooping around for breakfast. My eyes flicked back to Bucky and the kid. He was now giving the kid a look of suppressed, perhaps resigned amusement as she draped herself over his arm, getting in the way of his reading. She just grinned cheekily at him, then glanced around to where I stood. The grin grew as she pointed at me. Bucky looked up and around, and for a moment it felt like all the blood drained from my face, then went bright red. I cleared my throat. There was no point in getting awkward about this. Better to just pretend it never happened, right? I'd probably stuffed it up too much, anyway.

"Morning." I greeted, smiling. For once I was glad for the Hydra training. He smiled right back. Normal as we'd ever been.

"Morning." Everything about him seemed so casual, his hair tied back in a half ponytail, the fringe still escaping to fall in his eyes. He looked back around at the kid as she shifted on his lap so she was sitting, definitely in the way of his reading now, and I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped me.

"She getting in your way?"

"Eh, she's just bored," He assured me, "It's not too bad."

"I wouldn't be surprised, given that she can't understand a word that we're saying." I stepped into the room, crouching down beside the couch, the girl watching me attentively.

 _"You able to tell us your name?"_ I asked, speaking Russian. Bucky looked at me, a little unsure, a little surprised. The kid definitely looked surprised, her ears flicked towards me. Then she grinned.

 _"You make sense!"_ Her voice was filled with glee, even if it did sound a bit uncomfortable to be speaking. I smiled at her.

 _"Yes, I make sense. Sorry I didn't make sense earlier. My name's Tyra, and big guy here is Bucky. You able to tell me your name?"_

 _"Oxana."_ I smiled, taking her hand gently in mine.

 _"It's nice to be able to talk to you, Oxana."_

"So," Bucky muttered, "How did you figure out she's Russian?"

"A couple of educated guesses. The main..." I frown, trying to think of the right word, "Uh... The main... Bad-guy? Sure, the main bad-guy languages are German and Russian. Would make sense for her to be one of those... um... eth... eth..."

"Ethnicities?" I nod.

"Yeah. That. Thanks."

"You're welcome. And I don't believe you." I grin, looking up at him. And instantly regretting it. I did my best to hide it, though, just shrugging.

"Alright, fine. She mumbled something last night in her sleep. Something about not making her go back." Now it was Bucky's turn to frown.

"Not go back? As in, to whoever made her like this?"

"Would be my guess," I stood up, "Anyway, I'm going to have breakfast. You entertain Oxana." The girl looked around at me upon hearing her name, looking at me curiously. I shook my head, trying to show her not to worry, then reached out and ruffled her hair. She whacked at my hands gently, pouting slightly, but also looking altogether too pleased with herself. An interesting expression to her to be pulling off, considering her more feline appearance. Bucky scoffed a little, trying to peer around at his book.

 _"How about you go keep Tyra company?"_ He suggested in Russian. Oxana looked around at him, once again surprised that someone else could understand her. Then she grinned, simply snuggling up with him more. I grinned.

"You two look adorable." I told him. He just rolled his eyes, but was smiling nonetheless. That was when I heard my phone start ringing. I frowned, confused. Bucky looked at me curiously.

"Something wrong?"

"I'm not expecting any..." Then the penny dropped, "Oh, shit!" I rushed out of the room, skidding around the corners and into Oxana's room, where I'd fallen asleep the night before. My phone was on the bedside table, vibrating. I hurried to pick it up, opening the call.

"Hi! Hi-hi-hi, sorry, I completely forgot and didn't even know the time."

 _"Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised,"_ PARROT told me, _"You're lost without me."_

"And my head hurts with you," I retorted, then frowned, pondering if that sentence actually made sense, "Anyway, Steve with you?"

 _"Course he is. Unlike some people, he's actually punctual."_ I rolled my eyes.

"Can you put him on please? I'll go get Bucky."

 _"Oh, so he's Bucky now, is he?"_

"Just get Steve." I sighed, still too tired to deal with PARROT's shit. If a computer could laugh, I knew she would be. I was walking down the hall when Steve's face appeared on the small screen.

 _"Hi, Tyra."_

"How's it going, Steve? Long time no see."

 _"Yeah, well, you kinda eloped from Wakanda with my best friend. How's that going for you, by the way?"_

"I didn't elope, Rogers. You've been spending too much time with my dumb computer." Steve half smiled, then sobered.

 _"How is he?"_ I shrugged.

"Not too bad. You can see for yourself soon. We'll fill you in on everything together. Easier. Also means that if I forget anything, Bucky can fill in. So far I seem to be having a bad dad."

 _"A bad what?"_

"Bad da-... oh. I definitely did not mean a bad dad. God, my timing is just perfect today!" I sighed, shaking my head, stepping back into the room with Barnes and Oxana. They both looked around at me.

"Who is it?" Bucky asked.

"Your boyfriend."

"My what?"

 _"Well, seems your humour is holding up just fine."_ Steve shook his head and I half smiled as I sat down in what had been Oxana's seat. She looked down at the screen in fascination, her eyes growing wide. Steve frowned, both concerned and amused.

 _"Who's this?"_ He asked.

"Steve, this is Oxana. She's a little... complicated," I smile around at Oxana, who curled up with Bucky more, smiling shyly at the little Steve on screen, "Anyway, we should probably discuss our plans. Where are you now?"

 _"Is your phone secured?"_

"Don't insult me, Steve. It's almost as secured as Frankenstein."

 _"Then I'll get Sam to send you the meet up point. Nat's currently looking through the files PARROT retrieved on Phoenix."_

"Is it enough?" Bucky asked, and I glanced around at him. He had put his book off to the side, resting his chin on the top of Oxana's head, arms wrapped around her. They looked adorable.

I turned my attention back to my phone, Steve turning around and looking somewhere off screen. I could hear Nat talking in the background, but couldn't quite make out what was being said.

 _"You hear that?"_ Steve asked, looking back at us. I shook my head.

"Too far away." Bucky told him. Steve nodded, shifting his camera closer to Nat. I blinked a couple of times, surprised by her hair colour. White looked... different.

 _"The info PARROT found for us is encrypted,"_ She said, _"I'm managing to unencrypt it bit by bit, but it's pretty thoroughly done. So far all we have on him is that he can summon fire and can't be killed easily. Have some partial conversations, but a lot of it is redacted. They're hiding this guy pretty well."_ I frowned, confused. Why would it still be encrypted? And why wasn't PARROT helping to remove the encryptions? Bucky glanced over at me, noticing the strange look on my face, but didn't say anything.

"So we don't even have a name?"

 _"Not yet, but hopefully we'll have something soon,"_ I nodded, _"Is there anything that either of you remember?"_ She looked away from her computer screen to us. I thought for a moment, but shook my head.

"Nothing that will help us. Ginger hair. Freckled. Younger than me. Other than that, not really. Not sure, but I think he joined Hydra willingly. And his powers were somehow activated, or given to him, possibly in a similar way to how Wanda and Pietro got their powers." Steve and Nat shared looks, Bucky frowning slightly.

"You actually remembered something?" He asked, voicing what everyone was thinking. I shrugged.

"Been dreaming recently." He nodded.

 _"I'll see if I can find anything more. Thanks, Ty."_

"No problemo."

The house shook. I looked out the nearest window, suddenly on high alert. Oxana's ears were flat against her head, eyes wide in fear, Bucky's arms tightening around her protectively before he gently shifted her from his lap, heading over to the window. Tony came rushing into the room.

 _"What's going on?"_ Steve asked.

"Tony?"

"You mean you didn't feel anything coming?" He asked me. I shook my head.

"Should I have?" The house shook again, Oxana whimpering and hiding her face between my shoulder and the couch. I watched her, reaching around and rubbing her shoulder as comfortingly as I could.

"Does that answer your question?" Tony continued on through the room, heading down to his suits most likely. Bucky and I looked at each other. I sighed.

"Gonna have to call you back," I told Steve, "Or you lot send me the location and we'll meet you there."

 _"Be careful, all of you."_

"Since when haven't we been careful?" Bucky called back.

"Coming from the guy who fell off a moving train." I muttered, hanging up on Steve and heading for the door, Oxana just watching me. Bucky walked over to her and picked her up, having her immediately bury her face in his neck. I could pretty much see her shaking. This wasn't good.

"We need to get her somewhere safe."

"We need to get us all somewhere safe." I opened the door and stood back for him to walk through, the house shaking again. I glanced at the ceiling, dust falling from it.

"Surprised it's stayed up this long."

"It was blown up, remember?" Tony asked, now fully in his suit, "I've put a few precautions in place to prevent that happening again. Only just rebuilt, I don't want it blowing up again."

"Sorry for bringing this on you." Bucky told him, heading for his room.

"If you aren't now then you will be once this is over."

"Tony, now is not the time to be fighting with Bucky. Think you can distract them for a bit?" I asked, "And where's Pepper?"

"She's safe, for now at least," Tony replied, "And who do you think I am?" He flew up, heading straight through the door, which thankfully opened before he flew straight through it. I watched for a moment as it closed again, presuming it was another feature that Tony had added in, before heading downstairs to the work room, Bucky showing up long after.

"So, anything around I can arm myself with?" He asked. I threw a dry look over my shoulder.

"You're in Tony Stark's basement. What do you think?"

"Good point." I walked to the back of the room and opened a panel in the wall. It slid back to reveal what I hoped it would.

An upgrade.

I half smiled, taking down my uniform. It was just like Tony to be working on a new improved outfit for one of the people who he was struggling with most relationship wise.

This uniform was a bit of a change from the old one, but it was still clearly mine. For one, it was now one piece, and clearly had more tech in it. It almost reminded me of one of Nat's past outfits, just more done up. It didn't have sleeves, only straps, a bit like a tank top, a jacket nearby. Like the old coat, it had shorter sleeves, but went to where the gauntlets would start. Unlike the coat I used to have, however, it very definitely didn't have a tail. Almost disappointing, I was no longer able to do the Fury. You know, billowing tail as you enter a room. But it made sense. Being more aerodynamic was, in my case, a good idea, given I frequently decided that running through air was a good idea.

The colour was the normal dark blue, but Tony had added patterns of gold to it, and the boots were now knee highs rather than army boots. I didn't have a hood anymore, but that was okay. There were two small button-like pieces of tech, which were placed either side of the mannequins head, which were placed a bit back from the temples.

I looked back over my shoulder to Bucky, the smile leaving my face.

"Somehow I doubt he'll have made something for you. You could always steal one of his suits?" I suggested, only half joking.

"We already have people trying to kill us. Not to mention Stark and I only just got on even semi good terms." I shrugged, pointing to another panel on the wall.

"Might be something in there. Most likely stuff he hasn't gotten around to figuring out how to fit in his suits." Bucky nodded and headed over to sort out what weapons he wanted while I took down my suit, putting on the tech first so I wouldn't forget. It reacted instantly, a visor-like thing coming across my vision.

"Woah..." I looked around, admiring the numbers and circles and things now all over my vision. Bucky turned around and looked at me.

"Okay?"

"He made a variation on his Iron Man helmet." I explained, then went back to getting ready. This would probably be, as usual, an interesting fight.

As if to confirm my thoughts, the building shook again. I hurried myself. Tony was going to need help if he wanted to keep his new house.


	11. Chapter 11

We headed straight outside, where Tony was busy firing at the soldiers busy bombarding his home.

"You two took your sweet time getting ready!" He snapped. If I wasn't already starting to concentrate on fighting, I would have shrugged. As it was, I was too busy creating a wind storm to distract and hinder the attackers.

"I had to take a moment to admire my new uniform." I told him, thoroughly enjoying the pieces of info that would pop up in my vision. Bucky didn't say anything, already starting to shoot the invaders.

"You could have done that later." Tony grumbled before flying off to take out another group. By now it was almost guaranteed that the emergency services had been called and were on their way. I didn't bother following it up with any smart-arse comment, reaching out and calling up a clump of earth, essentially throwing it at a bunch of people. They stopped firing at me, falling backwards as they were hit by high speed wads of dirt. I called up a shield of wind as the bullets started raining towards me and Bucky in greater numbers.

"Make sure I know where you are," I instructed, "I don't really fancy one of us getting hurt again and having to stick around for longer to be cared for."

"Same goes to you about using too much magic."

"No promises there." I grinned, Bucky shaking his head at me before firing again. Our numbers felt a little unbalanced. Three of us facing…

"Hey, Tony!" I called, Tony swinging around and hovering for a moment in the safe zone behind my air shield, "How many of them are there?"

"I don't know, I'm blowing them up, not counting them."

"Guestimate."

"Thirty?"

"They sent smaller numbers this time." Bucky muttered, Tony once more flying off. I frowned.

"Why?" I asked, "They sent a shit tonne of them after us last time, why so few now? We kicked their butts."

"Let's kick their butts again and think about it later." I rolled my eyes at him, shifting my weight slightly, feet firmly planted on the ground, and reached out with my mind.

"Make sure they don't shoot me." I muttered, Bucky not replying. I dropped the air shield, now concentrating solely on the ground beneath my feet. Then on the ground beneath Bucky's, and eventually the ground beneath our enemies. I knelt down, my fingertips brushing the ground. I could feel Bucky move in front of me, trying to block me from any bullets that might come my way.

Then I gave the order. The ground started moving, slowly at first, grudgingly. I could feel its resistance, could feel it wanting to be lazy. And then it moved faster. I could vaguely hear the calls of warning, then the cries of alarm as they fell into a pit. I frowned.

"I can't hold it like this forever," I said, "If anyone wants to do anything, do it now." I could vaguely feel Bucky moving away, headed towards my newly made pit. I forced my concentration to stay on the pit itself, though, on the earth that made it. I could feel it wanting to return to its previous shape, to how it naturally sat. But I couldn't let that happen. Depending on how it moved, then it would quite possibly crush the men inside, something that I didn't want to do. I wasn't a killer.

That was when I felt it. Something wild creeping up behind me. My concentration slipped as I shot up and looked around, at the ready, taking a stumbling step backwards, only to feel heat at me heels. I glanced over my shoulder at the cries of fear that escaped the men, Bucky turning to check on me, a frown on his face. His gun immediately shot up, pointing just past me. Tony hovered not far away, pointing his palms in the same direction. I turned back to where they were looking, the flames stopped not far away from me, encircling me, strongly suggesting to me that I don't bother trying to escape. It was definitely not natural fire. I frowned, following them back to their creator.

Phoenix.

There he stood, smug as anything, his goggles resting on the top of his head, revealing his amber eyes. He wore the same uniform as he had before, but this time I also noticed the fingerless gloves and the material of his uniform. It all looked to be leather. Beside him stood another all too familiar figure, one that set my heart racing in fear. Pure, primal fear. The kind of fear that has every essence of your being screaming at you to run, but your body just frozen in place.

Brown hair. Grey eyes. An altogether too familiar roman nose.

"Kuznetsov." I growled, trying to hide my fear. He just smiled at me.

"We meet again, Schönheit."

"Can't say it's nice to see you again. I thought I dumped you."

"You certainly tried your best," He agreed, "I see you've made short work of my men." I looked back around to where I'd summoned the pit, seeing a few remaining soldiers struggling to escape, their arms waving frantically in the air. I knew that there would be more that were lost under the ground. I felt nauseous. Slowly I turned back to face Kuznetsov.

"I didn't want to kill them." I said, almost too forcefully.

"You might not want to push her too much," Tony called, "She's been a bit unpredictable of late." Kuztensov just smiled.

"Oh, don't you worry about us, Mr. Stark. We know how to handle ourselves. It's Miss Jones here that doesn't know how to control herself." My hands clenched into fists and I could feel the rising desire to kill these people, could feel the air around them growing thinner. Phoenix shifted uncomfortably, his chest starting to heave, the smug grin leaving his face, a hint of fear in his eyes. Kuznetsov, however, didn't look in the least bit phased. If anything, the smirk grew.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Schönheit," He said, "Unless you want the girl to also die." He motioned to someone I hadn't noticed, standing just in the shadow of the doorway. And they were holding the arm of a small, felinesque figure. The air immediately returned to the area, my eyes widening.

"Let her go, you bastards! She's just a kid!" I yelled, taking half a step forward. The flames surrounding me flared up, now standing far taller than me, the tips almost touching to make a cage around me. I fell back, throwing my arms in front of my face to try shield myself from the flames.

"Tyra!" I identified it as Bucky, but over the sound of the flames it was difficult to tell.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Kuznetsov said, "If you do anything to any of us or come any closer, I will give the order for Phoenix here to turn your friend into a crisp."

"What do you want?" Tony demanded.

"Just to have a chat and to retrieve the property that is mine." By now the heat was really getting to me, the flames seeming to grow ever nearer. Sweat was streaming down my face, my lungs struggling with the smoke inhalation. I was starting to panic, unable to think clearly with a mixture of emotions. Fear, that Oxana was going to get hurt, that Kuznetsov was going to take her away. That he was going to do something to me. That I was going to get burnt alive. That he would take away the people I care about. And rage. How dare he put me in this situation? How dare he come back into my life, when I had thought I was free of him?

I reached out with my mind, feeling the flames, feeling their will to run free, to eat everything. I reached further, twisting my will into them. Could feel Phoenix there. He knew what I was doing.

"Sir, we should probably get a move on. She's starting to try her escape."

"You can hold her, can't you?"

"Probably. But I wouldn't want to risk how she'll respond if she manages to get out." There was a moment silence. I didn't pay much attention, didn't bothering wondering what they were doing, simply struggling to gain more control over the flames, try to push them back a little, try to force them into dying down.

"You two, don't follow us. You'll want to look after your friend," Kuznetsov told Buck and Tony, "And as for you, Schönheit, I know you can still hear me. I expect to be seeing you again very, very shortly." The flames stayed up for a bit longer, Phoenix's hold on them strengthening ever so slightly. I did my best to fight it, scowling, and then, suddenly, it was gone. It felt like when you're playing tug of war with someone, and suddenly the person on the other end gives up. Except mentally. Somehow that translated to me feeling like I was falling backwards physically, collapsing back and hitting my head roughly on the ground.

"Tyra!" Bucky rushed forward as Tony landed nearby, clomping his way over to me. Bucky knelt beside me as I pushed myself so I was propped up on my elbow. For a moment I just stayed there panting, looking at the ground. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to meet the concerned eyes of Bucky.

"Are you OK?" He asked. I didn't reply, just looking at him for a moment, then around. I stumbled to my feet, Bucky scrambling to help me. I pushed him away, taking a step back.

"You let them take Oxana?" I demanded, Bucky looking apologetic.

"They would have killed you if I didn't."

"She's a kid! I can look after myself, but she's a _child!_ "

"Tyrant, calm down!" Tony snapped, his helmet down. I glared at him.

"How can I?" I demanded, "They just waltzed in there and took her! And we did _nothing_ to stop them!"

"They would have killed the kid too if we hadn't let them go," Tony told me firmly, "And you know that." I didn't have any kind of response for that. I just stood there, panting heavily, still feeling overheated from the flame prison I'd been trapped in. I shook my head, turning and heading back inside.

"We need to get out of here," I called back, "We need to get her back."

* * *

The car was silent as we drove along the road, headed towards the coordinates that Sam had sent us. Bucky was driving, and I sat in the passenger seat. Tony had stayed behind with Pepper, unsurprisingly, but had ordered us to keep him up to date with how things happened, to let him know if there was anything he could do to help get Oxana back. The only thing that came to mind at first was for him to give us some kind of transport. Which was how we had gotten the car, which now had an uncomfortable silence in it.

I knew it wasn't Bucky's fault. I certainly didn't blame him for what happened. Hell, I blamed myself for everything. I blamed myself for Oxana being used against me, blamed myself for not being able to protect her. And I certainly hated myself for lashing out at Bucky like that.

So I just sat there, staring out the window as we drove. I felt almost sick, and not from heat stroke. I'd jumped in the shower almost as soon as I got back to my room, standing under an almost excessively cold stream of water to try and minimise the effects the flames'd had on me.

A sigh escaped me, and I rubbed the back of my neck uncomfortably.

"You good?" Bucky asked, glancing over to me before once again concentrating on the road.

"Mhm." I replied, the car once again falling into silence. I bit my lower lip, frowning, then sighed again, more in irritation this time. I turned in my seat so I was facing forward, turning my head to look at Bucky.

"Actually…" I started, then paused, looking away again for a moment while I tried to get my thoughts in order, "I, uh… I'm sorry. For snapping at you the way I did." I only looked at him again after I said it.

"Don't worry about it," He told me, almost too gently, "I'm worried about her, too."

"That's my point. You're probably just as worried as me, I shouldn't have taken my own issues out on you."

"Tyra, it's fine. You had a lot going on at that moment."

"It's no excuse." I muttered, turning to look out the window again.

"You're right, it's not. But it's a reason for it."

"Why can't you just be mad at me?" I almost chuckled, "Lord knows I'd deserve it."

"Coz getting mad at you won't help fix anything," He looked over at me as we stopped at a set of lights, and I looked around at him, "And we are going to fix this, Tyra." I half smiled at him, rather sadly, shaking my head.

"'Don't make promises you can't keep'," I whispered, "Someone used to say that to me a lot."

"This is a promise I have every intention of keeping," He half smiled, "We've beaten Kuznetsov before, right?" I nodded, "Then we can do it again." I smiled. I wasn't fully convinced, but I certainly felt better about it now. I looked out the front windscreen.

"Light is green." I muttered, Bucky once more turning his attention to the road, me once again turning my attention out the window.


	12. Chapter 12

"Glad you made it." Steve greeted as we got out of the car. I smiled at him, walking right up to him and giving him a hug, which he readily returned.

"Good to see you." I muttered.

"You too, Ty." We stepped away from each other, Steve walking over to Bucky while I headed into the building where Nat and Sam were. It was a simple building, slightly run down. Like a mini abandoned warehouse. It was quite clean inside, however, and nothing looked like it was about to break any time soon. One room with everything they needed and a staircase heading up to a second floor, where I assumed was where they slept.

"Nice hideout," I called out in greeting, "Could use a bright pink rug, though." Sam looked up from a bunch of folders he was looking over and Nat swung around on her chair, a computer screen just behind her with, I assumed, the information on Phoenix.

"Why bright pink?" He asked, standing up and heading over to me. I gave him a quick hug, then Nat.

"I dunno. Just looks a bit dull in here."

"It's only temporary. Going to move again soon. Hopefully to somewhere a little more comfortable." Nat explained. I shrugged.

"Wakanda's pretty nice," I said, "Definitely better than this place."

"Not all of us can be so lucky as you were, Ty." I grinned, then sobered.

"So, what have you got on Phoenix?" I asked. Nat headed back over to her computer, and I followed.

"His real name is Ryan Chase and he's about 18 years old."

"So he's as much of a kid as he looks. That's great to know. I'm being beaten by a child." Nat and Sam looked at me in mild confusion. I just shook my head.

"I'll tell you later. Anything on where he currently is?"

"Well, he's currently working under someone you know."

"Kuznetsov, yeah, I know. But where is the base of operations?"

"From what we can tell, a bank not that far from here."

"We've been taking turns in staking the place out. Definitely some suspicious people going in and out." Sam added.

"Have either of you seen Kuznetsov or Phoenix entering the building with a kid? Yay tall, looks kind of odd? Incredibly blue eyes?" Sam and Nat shared looks, then looked back at me.

"What's going on, Ty?" Nat asked. I sighed, looking around as the door opened and Steve came in with Bucky. My eyes were trained on Bucky.

"You told him what happened?" I asked.

"Not everything." He answered. I nodded.

"Since everyone's here now, may as well fill them in." He nodded, Steve pulling up a couple of chairs. Sam went and got a couple more, one for me and one for him. Then we sat around Nat and her computer. And Bucky and I started explaining the situation as we knew it.

* * *

We'd spent the rest of the day trying to come up with a plan to get Oxana away from Kuznetsov. The planning had gone on for a lot longer than we'd expected it to, and before long it was dark outside, everyone vanishing to their respective sleeping areas. Upstairs was a bit more complicated than I'd thought it'd be. It actually had multiple rooms, for one, and one of those rooms had been assigned to me for as long as I needed it. A small room, fairly empty. Just a few blankets and a pillow on the floor in a corner near the window, more than enough and not exactly something I wasn't used to from missions I'd been sent on, both by S.H.I.E.L.D and by Hydra. And it wasn't like I used it for that long. I tried to get to sleep, I really did. But my mind kept working too much, thoughts swirling in my head, making me toss and turn. I sighed, rolling onto my back and staring at my ceiling for a white, trying to count the spiderwebs, then the cracks, and then just listening to the number of cars that drove past outside. Nothing worked for calming my mind, for making me get to sleep. I shook my head, sitting up and looking out the window, back to the door. I was just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, which was a bit chilly, but that didn't particularly matter with my powers. I simply warmed the air around me until I was at a comfortable temperature if it bothered me too much. And then I just set about paying attention to where everyone else was, waiting. When I was certain everyone was in their rooms, I descended back to the downstairs area, my bare feet softly pattering on the cold wooden floor, hoping that I wouldn't get any splinters in them, heading over to make myself a coffee, then sitting down in one of the chairs near the window, aimlessly staring out of it, my thoughts on anything but the coffee. It was going to be a long, restless night.

* * *

I'd reheated my coffee a few times by now, having been sitting curled up in the chair for a few hours without getting up. My legs were starting to cramp a little, but I barely noticed. I was still thinking too much about Oxana. About what she must be feeling. About the rage I felt for Kuznetsov, about what I would do to him when I would see him again. And I was going to see him again, I'd make sure of that. I'd also make sure that I was the one to kill him. Wasn't even going to use my powers on him. I wanted to be able to watch the light go out in his eyes. Wanted to do to him what he made me do to my parents.

No. I wanted to worse. I wanted him to burn, the way he'd tried to make the Phoenix do to me. Except worse. I wanted him to burn from the inside out. Wanted to hear his screams, hear him beg for mercy. The way he'd made so many beg for mercy from me. Wanted him to feel the fear he'd made so many others feel. I wanted to see him hurt.

"Your coffee's boiling." I snapped out of my thoughts, head snapping around to look at who'd spoke.

"Huh?"

"Your coffee," Steve repeated, stepping over to take a seat opposite me, "It's boiling." I looked down at the mug in my hands, blinking slowly a couple of times.

"Oh. Right." My eyes faded back to their natural colour and the bubbling stopped, despite the rage that still lurked beneath my skin. I looked back out the window, watching the occasional car that went past.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah, not really."

"Dreams?" I shook my head.

"Just an insomnia night." I looked around and smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. Clearly it didn't work very well, Steve watching me, that usual look of concern in his eyes.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You don't seem like your usual self."

"That's because I'm not," I shrugged as casually as I could, "But I'm still fine."

"Is it because of Kuznetsov?"

"Come on, you don't need to go Papa Steve on me, Rogers." I rolled my eyes, setting the coffee aside and starting to pace around the building. Steve just watched me for a moment.

"Worried about Oxana?" He asked after a while. I stopped pacing, half turning to look at him.

"If he touches a hair on her head, I swear, I will kill him." I growled, Steve giving me a sympathetic look.

"You really have become a mother to her, haven't you?"

"No," I objected, "I barely know her, and she barely knows me. But she's a child. A child that Kuznetsov is ordering experiments on. And I bet Hauer is involved, too. I've been there. Done that. And wouldn't wish it on anyone, let alone a child as young as Oxana."

"She'll be alright, Tyra. We're gonna get her out."

"She'd better be alright. Or I will destroy everything they love." Steve frowned, shaking his head, getting out of the chair and walking over to me.

"This isn't you, Tyra. This is her." I scoffed, looking away again, shaking my head.

"No," I told him, looking back up at him, at the concerned glint in his eyes, matching it with my own look of determination and hatred, "This is pent up rage and hatred that I've been feeling for the past twelve years." I sighed, looking away again, running a hand through my hair. Part of me worried that he was right. That it was the person Hydra made me be coming out. The one part of the technology in my brain that I actually missed. The forcing the two people I was into actually being two people. Sometimes it felt like it could be handy. Being able to supress the murderer without actually having to think about it.

"Hey," He rested a hand on my shoulder, "You know you can talk to me, right?" I smiled slightly.

"Yeah. I know." He sighed, pulling me into a hug.

"Come here." He muttered. I just let him, not returning it, not fighting it. I just stood there, letting him give me a hug. It took me a moment to hesitantly return it, the anger subsiding for a moment, letting me feel the terror beneath it all.

"I'm scared, Steve." I whispered, now having to concentrate on not shivering. I didn't want him to know exactly how scared I was. In all honesty, scared didn't even begin to cover it. I was terrified. Completely, utterly, terrified.

"I know, Ty. But it's gonna be alright. We'll get her back tomorrow. This will work." I nodded.

"Yeah," I bit my lower lip, "It will." I wasn't sure if I believed it or not, but I felt like I had to. I didn't know what I'd do if it didn't work. Oxana was too important to me. A thought slithered into my head, taking root and not wanting to leave.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I was becoming something of a mother towards Oxana. And hell knew I'd do anything to get her back. Do anything to keep her safe.

My fists clenched into fists and my whole body tensed. I couldn't lose her. I'd already failed her once. She hadn't wanted to go. She'd said so. And I'd done nothing to help her. Her words rung in my head.

 _"Don't make me go."_

Steve's grip tightened around me before I pulled away. He left his hands on my shoulders, looking down into my eyes.

"You going to be okay?" He asked. I nodded, giving him a shakey smile.

"Yeah," I assured him, "Just that I should probably go try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a big day." He nodded.

"Okay." I stepped away, moving over to the stairs, looking back around at him.

"You should get some sleep, too. Not even the now infamous Captain America can run a mission on no sleep." He chuckled, shaking his head.

"Don't worry, I'll go to bed soon."

"You better."

Neither of us noticed as someone slipped out of the shadows upstairs and back down the hall, their door closing silently behind them as I ascended the stairs. He leaned back against his door as I passed, waiting a moment before letting a sigh escape him as he thought over everything he'd seen and heard.


	13. Chapter 13

Natasha and Sam were posing as a new couple interested in opening an account together. The main reason it was Sam that we chose to be Nat's partner was that Steve was a bit well known by now, so we figured it would be smarter to send Sam in first to try to pull the attention away from Steve. They went in first, Nat in a blonde wig and heels, a mini skirt and cute top, almost like the stereotypical cool-girl ditz from high school, only in her early thirties. Sam wore a typical hoodie and jeans, though he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea of taking part in something that edged closer to being spy work.

"I'm a soldier, not a spy," He objected, yet again, as they got ready, "There's no way this is going to work."

"It will if you just listen to me and go with it." Natasha told him, helping him to get ready. I half smiled, laughing quietly to myself. They really didn't look like they'd work as a couple, not like this. But I knew that Natasha would get Sam ready for this quick enough. I always trusted Nat with stuff like this. It was what she'd trained her whole life for, after all.

Steve and Bucky would go into the building once we were certain all the attention of the people manning the counters was on Sam and Nat, or at least most of it. I worried more about their part in all of this than the Sam-Nat partnership. Steve and Bucky were two of the most well-known people out there at the moment. The main thing we had going for us in their case was that no one would expect Captain America and the Winter Soldier to be walking into a bank in the middle of the day, let alone be walking in together.

"I don't see why we have to act like we're a couple." Bucky grumbled, Steve looking just as unimpressed, but in a slightly more long-suffering way. Nat and I smirked at them.

"Coz we love Stucky." I said, shrugging.

"Yeah, totally ship it." Nat added. Both Steve and Bucky looked confused.

"Stucky?" Bucky asked, and I couldn't hold it anymore. I fully grinned.

"It's amazing what you find online. All the fanfics!" I laughed, then added, "Some of them are really well written, by the way. Remind me to show you later." Bucky and Steve shared looks, still confused.

"People write storied where you two are… you know…" Nat tried explaining, still trying to get Sam to look like he could be her fiancé.

"Together." He put forward. Bucky and Steve looked uncomfortable, sharing looks then looking at us.

"No. Just… no." Bucky said, walking away.

"There are a lot more than Stucky," I started explaining, "There's also Romanogers, Buny, Soviet Spouses…"

"Wait, stop, back up," Bucky held up a hand to shut me up, looking more alarmed than ever, "Who the hell is Buny?"

"Bucky and Tony." For a moment he just stood there, looking at me like I was crazy, then turned his back on me.

"I don't want to hear any more of this. Nope."

"There's also Tucky." Nat put forward, and I spun around to glare at her. Bucky frowned, now looking at her. Even Steve was looking amused at this point, though a little reluctantly.

"Another me and Tony thing?" He asked, a long-suffering tone in his voice.

"Nope. You and Tyra."

"Also gets called Bones in some places."

"I hate that name," I objected, "Tucky is much better than Bones," Bucky looked at me like I just grew a second head, "Not that I like either of them." I added, rather hurriedly.

"At least neither of them are Buny."

"Kinda like the Buny, actually. After that spider stunt, I can totally see it." That brought a smile back to his face, just the memory of me being so terrified of a robotic spider. Everyone else looked a bit confused, but I shook my head, turning back to Steve and Bucky.

"Anyway, you two better get used to being Stucky for a bit. Soon as we're in you can drop the act. If you can. By now I'm not entirely certain that Steve does have a thing for blonde-agent-chick. The number of times he's dropped everything to run after dearest, darlingest Bucky." Steve gave me one of his 'you know what' looks and I smirked, turning away from all of them. I had to get ready for my part of the plan.

* * *

Everything went smoothly, Sam and Natasha walking into the bank, Sam's arm flung lazily around Nat's shoulders, Nat with her arm around his waist. They looked kinda cute together, actually. They went straight into the relatively short line, happily chatting away. Well, probably flirting actually. Both of them were the type of people to do that.

 _"So, what's their ship name?"_ Bucky asked over comms. I scoffed, casually leaning against a streetlamp.

"Samtasha."

 _"Why is it that you can remember this stuff, but not important things like where you parked that quinjet you stole?"_ Steve asked.

"Borrowed, Steve. I borrowed it," I objected, "And uh… yeah, _then_ I forgot where I put it and it became more like stole. For all I know it's crashed at the bottom of the ocean. Or parked in the Grand Canyon or something."

 _"How long ago was this?"_ Bucky asked, and I pulled a face as I thought about it.

"Uh… not long after I got the tech out of my head. I needed space so went for a fly and ended up calling Tony for a lift back. He rubbed that in my face for months after."

 _"You might want to stop talking about this stuff,"_ PARROT chirped up, _"You're starting to annoy Samtasha."_ I chuckled to myself.

"Good to have you with us, PARROT."

 _"That's a sentence I never thought I'd hear."_

"Shut it, Rogers. You're up, anyway. Make sure to put your hand in Bucky's pocket. Couples always do that kinda stuff."

 _"Like you would know. You've never had a date."_

"Uh, actually, had one more recently than you, Barnes."

 _"You have?"_

"Yeah. I've had one date. A week before I was kidnapped by Hydra. Now keep on mission. Game faces, Dinosaurs." Bucky threw me a dry look from across the street before heading into the bank, hands in his hoodie pockets. I sobered, pulling my hair up into a ponytail, running my hands through my hair to make sure it was reasonably neatly done, feeling the scar hidden on my scalp, reminding me of everything Hydra had put me through. Of everything I needed to stop them from doing to Oxana. All humour was gone from the situation. I had to get her back.

I waited another couple of minutes before I crossed the road, checking to make sure that there were no vehicles at that moment, safely making it to the other side of the road. Bucky and Steve were looking over pamphlets, pretending to discuss different banks that they'd visited, Bucky leading the conversation. He was more used to being under cover than Steve. Nat and Sam were by now talking to one of the people at the counter.

"PARROT, are the cameras ready to go out?" I muttered, carefully not looking up at them.

 _"As soon as you want them to go out, they'll go."_

"Soon as I get into the room, jam them."

 _"Right."_ I walked up to the counter, a nice-looking youngish woman with chestnut hair and dimples sitting on the other side.

"Hi, can I help you?" She asked, smiling kindly.

"Yes, actually," I smiled, "My name is Tyra Jones, and I'd like to see Mr. Kuznetsov." She frowned.

"He has a full schedule today, I'm afraid."

"Just let him know I'm here. I'm sure he'll be willing to see me. Tyra Jones. Make sure to tell him that."

"We were told not to disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary. Is there something that I could help you with, instead?"

"Yeah, you can help me by going into your boss' office and telling him that I'm here. Trust me on this, he'll want to know about it."

"I –"

"Now, please. It's urgent." I felt like I was channelling my inner Karen, and I didn't entirely like it, felt a bit guilty for the way I was treating this woman. Steve darted a look at me, other customers also watching the fuss that I was making. The woman looked uncomfortable, if not a bit upset. I got the impression she was new.

"Just… give me a moment." She mumbled, scurrying off to one of the back rooms.

"Steve, Bucky, you might want to start getting people out of here. Sam, Nat, do me a favour and keep the security guard busy for a bit. I don't want him to try intervening with this. No nut kicks just yet, though. I want to try keep this as quiet as possible for as long as we can."

 _"Yeah, that goes for you too, Ty,"_ Nat told me, _"Don't do anything stupid to Kuznetsov until we get everyone out of here. We don't know how many people here are working with him and who's innocent."_ I didn't bother replying, the woman coming back with a confused look on her face.

"He said he'll see you now." She told me. I smiled, an extremely false smile.

"Thank you. I'll see myself in. You might want to take the rest of the day off."

"I…" I didn't wait to hear her answer, moving around and over to Kuznetsov's office, a deadly look in my eyes. Already the rage was starting to build in my veins, and I hadn't even laid eyes on him yet.

 _"We don't know how many people here are working with him and who's innocent."_ Nat's words rung through my head, giving me something to hold onto, something to try and calm me enough to keep Kuznetsov busy for a few minutes, give the others time to get everyone out of here. It was going to be difficult, I knew that. My emotions had a high chance of getting the best of me. But I was chosen for this because I was the one that Kuznetsov was most likely to be willing to see, what with our history. The guy had recruited me, for God's sake. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, we were connected.

I opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me, not taking my eyes off Kuznetsov. I had to hand it to the guy, he had a nice office. Big desk, fancy computer, two screens, large windows, large bookshelf utterly laden with books. Dark blue carpet, white and dark wood walls with landscape paintings decorating them. A photo of a woman and a young girl sitting on his desk. My eyes darted to the picture briefly and I frowned.

"So, who are they?" I asked, nodding to the photo before going back to watch him. Kuznetsov smiled slightly, reaching out and picking up the photo, turning it so he could look at it.

"The woman is Katya," He said, "She was my wife, for a time. Divorced about three years ago, soon after she found out about what I was involved in. Hid my daughter from my for as long as she could. Then she got sick, and my little Oxana had nowhere to go except for back to her papa." He turned his smile to me, getting up and handing the photo to me to look at. I didn't want to believe him that Oxana was his daughter, glaring at him for a moment, not moving. He held the photo closer to me.

"Take it," He said, "See for yourself." I slowly accepted the photo, still not taking my eyes off him. Only once the photo was securely in my hands did I actually look at it.

The woman was beautiful. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Extremely blue eyes. I knew those eyes. I frowned slightly, looking from the woman to the toddler that she was holding. She was maybe two years old, thumb securely in her mouth, crystal blue eyes opened wide, not aware of what was going on. Little yellow shirt, brown hair tied back in pig tails. I had to admit it, Oxana was a really cute toddler. I looked back at Kuznetsov, silently handing back the photo.

"Then explain something to me," I said as he accepted it, lazily putting it face down on the desk, "Why would you do this to your own daughter?"

"No one else is signing up to be experimented on, these days," He answered, leaning against his desk, "And Oxana had no choice in the matter. I am her legal guardian. Her papa. She had to do what I said."

"You disgust me," I spat, feeling that same rage boiling up inside me, "What did you even do to her?"

"We're not Hydra anymore," He said, almost conversationally, "But that doesn't mean we don't want what we always did want. And many of us simply want to figure how far science can take us." He pushed away from his desk, moving around behind it again, motioning for me to take the seat opposite him. As if we actually had an appointment. I didn't move, just stood there watching him. He shrugged, taking his seat again. A typical 'I've been expecting you' chair.

"A while ago we found a sample of DNA that didn't match anything from this world. One of our scientists wanted to try moulding it to human DNA, mix it. Tried it on a few adults, but it didn't take. Ended up killing them, actually. But children… children are still growing. He hypothesised that their bodies wouldn't reject the grafting."

"So even though it had a high chance of killing her, you volunteered your own daughter?"

"Naturally," Kuznetsov smiled, as if he were proud of the fact, "And it worked. Oxana is no longer human. She is mostly human, but part of her is alien," His face fell slightly, "Unfortunately, the grafting didn't fully take. Leaving her as this… creature."

"You did this to her," My voice was even, quiet, disgusted, "And she's not a creature. She's a child." He shrugged.

"Same thing, aren't they?" My hands clenched into fists.

"Please tell me you've managed to get everyone out?" I asked, Kuznetsov leaning his head to the side, but knowing full well that I wasn't talking to him. I got no reply, a small frown slipping onto my face.

"Having trouble contacting someone?" He asked, too sweetly.

"So, you knocked out radio signals," I shrugged, "That does you so much good."

"Oh, no," He said, "No, I didn't knock them out. A mutual friend of ours is jamming the signals."

"You wanna tell me who it is?" I asked, "Is it Hauer? Is he lurking around here, too?"

"Unfortunately, my friend was one of the first in the trials to have his DNA mixed with an alien's. There was a bit of a… what's the word I want? A coup d'état, I do believe. Hauer didn't win. No, our mutual friend is someone of your own creation, actually." I could feel the colour drain from my face.

"PARROT?"

 _"Sorry, Miss. I didn't see any other way."_

"You fucking bitch," I muttered, "I made you."

 _"Yes. And you belittled me right from the start. You treated me like shit. Acted like I meant nothing to you."_ I didn't know how I was meant to reply to that, feeling like shit. I physically felt like I was going to be sick. Kuznetsov smirked.

"What's wrong, Schönheit? Nothing to say?"

"You were my friend, PARROT, believe it or not. I trusted you. I needed you."

 _"No. I was an experiment, something to just see if you could."_

"So, you decided to turn on me. Okay, I can respect that. But turning on Steve?" That gave her reason to pause. Kuznetsov frowned slightly, confused.

 _"There was no way that was ever going to work,"_ PARROT said after a moment, _"I'm a computer. He's a physical human being."_

"Feeling betrayed yet, little one?" Kuznetsov stood up, moving around to me, "Good. I was trying to tear your life apart. Bit by bit." I just stood there, nails digging into my palm. There was a thought slipping into the back of my mind, tugging, pulling.

"What are you doing to my friends?" I whispered, now refusing to look at him.

"They're being taken care of." He sounded too smug. I couldn't take it anymore. I lashed out, taking him off guard and slamming him against the wall. He recovered pretty quickly, punching me in the gut, then pushing me away. I stumbled back, doubling over, winded, clutching my side, glaring up at him as he approached me, shoulders back.

"I'm going to enjoy this, Schönheit." He kneed me in the face, sending me sprawling backwards, already readying to stomp down on my right wrist. Which would have hurt like a bitch. I had problems with that hand, anyway. I rolled out of the way, smoothly getting to my feet, ignoring my stinging lungs, eyes fading to green as everything started being thrown around the room by the wind. Except for in one place. Right around Kuznetsov. He started clutching at his throat, scratching at it.

"You're not going to enjoy anything," I spat, calmly walking towards him, pulling my sleeves up to reveal my armbands, the ones Thor had given me, "You made me this. You should be prepared for the consequences." I let the air flood back into his lungs when he collapsed to his knees, now breathing heavily, his lungs aching, heart thumping. He looked up at me with defiance. Not what I was wanting. I pulled my knee up, feeling it collide with his nose.

He fell backwards, blood streaming down his face. When he looked around at me again, there was still none of the fear that I wanted in his eyes. Just hatred. I held my hand out, a stream of water appearing from the air and forming a ball in my hand.

"Open wide." I ordered, Kuznetsov scrambling backwards. Not that it would do him any good. As soon as I deemed the water in my hand enough, I held my hand towards him. It started streaming towards him, tendrils of it going up his nostrils. Then came the spluttering, the coughing, the struggling. And there it was. That hint of fear I so wanted to see from him. I half smiled, stepping closer to him and grabbing the collar of his shirt in one hand.

"Now you're starting to get an idea of what they felt." I hissed to him. He struggled to say something, but just ended up spluttering and coughing, clutching at my wrist, nails digging into my flesh. I barely batted an eye at him. I don't know how much further I would have gone if the door hadn't opened at that moment.

"Tyra! Tyra, stop!" I looked around, Bucky now standing in the doorway.

"Why should I?"

"Because this is exactly what he wants!"

"He wants to die, does he? Well, I'll happily help him with that."

"He wants to make you a monster," I paused, eyes fading from the clear blue they'd become upon releasing control of the air, "Think about Oxana. She wouldn't want you to do this." I looked around at Kuznetsov, not saying anything, then let go of his shirt, standing up, pulling the water from his lungs, my eyes fading back to their natural colour.

"You're lucky he showed up when he did," I told him, "I was going to force fire into your lungs next." Something inside me sang when I saw the pure terror in his eyes at that, even if I did have to look behind the pure hatred to find it.

"Thank you, Soldat." I saw Bucky tense. I wasn't surprised at what happened next, at Bucky kicking out and catching Kuznetsov in the mouth, knocking out a few of his front teeth.

"Don't call me that," He said, "Now how do we get to the rest of your base?" He asked. Kuznetsov held a hand to his mouth, moaning quietly in pain. I scoffed.

"Don't bother with him," I said, "Come on. I can find the entrance easy enough. Hell, I won't be surprised if it's the cliché behind the bookcase." My eyes were once again turning green when Steve, Nat, and Sam came into the room, taking one look at the scene before us. Steve looked from Kuznetsov, to me, to Bucky.

"I thought I told you to stop her doing anything stupid." He said.

"The teeth was Barnes." I told him, Steve glancing at me, then giving Bucky a dry look.

"Seriously?" Bucky shrugged.

"At least I stopped her from killing him." He muttered, hands back in his pockets. Nat pulled a 'yeah, okay' face and Sam just shook his head.

"So what are we all waiting around for?" He asked.

"I'm finding the way in, so shush while I concentrate." I close my eyes, feeling the air currents for a moment. There was the door to the outside. The aircon. The vents. A few unconscious bodies. And…

"Found it." I stepped out of the office, walking down a short hall to what looked like a dead end. Steve was the last to follow me, quickly zip tying Kuznetsov's hands together and pulling him to his feet, shoving him down the hall after us. Part of me hated that Kuznetsov was coming with us. Part of me knew that it was probably going to come in handy. I frowned, looking at the wall.

"You say you found it, then you lead us to a dead end," Bucky said, raising an eyebrow, "You sure your powers are all they're cracked up to be?" I glared at him.

"You saw me crush thirty odd soldiers, right? You were there, weren't you?" He paused a moment, then nodded.

"Yeah, okay, good point."

"Just because I can find the door doesn't mean I can find how to open it," I mutter, "And it's not like I can ask PARROT for help."

"Why not?" Nat asked, "She could probably get it opened for us easy."

"Because she's working with them."

 _"What?"_ Everyone asked, giving me incredulous looks.

"You made her, Tyra, how is this even possible?"

"I guess I'm more like Tony that I thought. Right down to the making a murder-bot," I sigh, "Can we have a go at me later? Figure this out first, then have a go at me?" Nat pointed at a painting on the wall.

"Check behind that," She suggested, "Bad guys love hiding stuff behind paintings." I lifted the painting to find a plain old wall. I shrugged, letting the painting fall to the ground.

"Welp. Looks like these guys have half a brain," I thought for a moment, then pulled a face, "I've used my powers to get us this far." I muttered, eyes turning green again as I reached out with my mind, this time feeling all the mechanisms within the door, solidifying it in places to open all the locks, press all the buttons, pull all the levers, and then…

The wall swung inwards.

I turned to look at Kuznetsov, who looked downright pissed.

"You proud of me yet?" I asked, "Coz you should be. You made me into this." He just glared at me, not saying anything. It'd probably be a bit painful to talk, what with his now missing his front teeth. But I didn't care. Not about him. I turned away and stepped into the base, shedding my coat to reveal the uniform that Tony had made for me, the tech's visor closing over my eyes. Everyone else wasn't that far behind me. Nothing was going to stop me from getting Oxana back.

Nothing.


	14. Chapter 14

"Tyra, slow down! We don't even know where we're going!" Steve struggled to get me to listen to him, Sam now pushing Kuznetsov along. I shook my head.

"I know exactly where we're going," I told him, "I'm going to find the computer system or Oxana. Whichever comes first."

"Then you should at least be trying to be careful."

"Why should I? Why should I be careful when I can just suffocate anyone who gets in my way. Or drown them. Or burn them alive. Or crush them." Steve looked around at everyone else as though asking for help.

"All of that takes energy, Tyra," Nat provided, "If you're not careful, you'll be too tired to help Oxana." I didn't reply for a moment. I knew she was right. But I didn't know if I cared. I could tell that my friends were worried about me.

"Fine," I eventually agreed, "I'll only suck the air out of their lungs."

"Come on!" Steve muttered as I sped up, promptly removing the air from one of the rooms as we moved past, everyone inside stumbling for the door. Everyone else dealt with them as they stumbled out. Bucky shook his head, ignoring everyone else and hurrying to catch up with me.

"Tyra, wait," I glared at him briefly, but didn't stop, "Steve's right. We need to stop and think about the best way to do this."

"Seriously?" I stopped, turning to face him, "They all deserve what they get. And frankly, none of them can stop me."

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should," He told me, "And what if you accidentally catch Oxana up in all this?"

"Fine. You might have a point." I sighed, looking back around at everyone. Steve threw Bucky a look of thanks and I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms. I wanted to get a move on. The longer we stood around, the longer our enemies had to get out of here, or plan the best way to fight back.

"What's the plan, Cap?" I asked, really not happy about stopping.

"Spread out," He said, "Sam, Nat, you two try find a computer system. Use Kuzntesov. Try get everyone here to surrender." They nodded.

"What about you?" Nat asked. Steve looked back at me, meeting my eyes.

"Buck and I will try keep Tyra from doing anything too stupid while we try to find Oxana and any other prisoners."

"Gee, I'm overwhelmed in your confidence in me, Steve." I grumbled, rolling my eyes again, already starting to move on. Bucky glanced at the others before following me, Nat, Steve, and Sam pausing a moment to have a quick discussion before they went their own ways.

"You know, you two could go your own way. We split up more and we can cover more ground." I said as Steve caught up.

"You're not acting like yourself," Steve told me, "I'm not going to leave you on your own."

"I don't need a babysitter."

"How about friends?" Bucky asked. I didn't reply. I didn't know how to. Honestly, I was starting to feel a bit guilty, making them spend so much of their energy on worrying about me. They were right, I wasn't acting like me. I was acting like my alter ego.

* * *

"You got any idea where we should be heading?" Steve asked.

"From what I can tell, this place is similar to many other Hydra facilities I've been in," Bucky told him, "So the science labs shouldn't be that far away. We want to turn right at the end of the hall."

"And then straight for ages," I continued, "Then if there are steps, we want to head down. Don't want to get to the actual labs. Should probably get to the cells."

"Like what you were kept in?" Steve asked. I nodded silently. Bucky was never kept in one of those cells, or not to my knowledge. I spent most of my time with Hydra in them, though. If I wasn't out killing people or being trained or anything like that. They were probably part of the reason I was mildly claustrophobic for a bit after having the tech removed.

"Then what's the quickest way out?"

"Straight up?" I suggested.

"I was being serious, Tyra."

"I was being serious too, Steve," I glanced around at him, spotting some agents coming towards us from down a side corridor, punching out and causing the ceiling to collapse between us and them, giving them no way to reach us, "I can probably open a tunnel from the cells to the surface."

"I thought earth was difficult to control?" Steve asked, blinking in surprise at what I'd just managed to do. I shrugged.

"I think that at the moment it'll be fine. I'm in a heightened emotional state, so…" I shrugged again.

"So she's unpredictable and dangerous." I scoffed, smiling slightly.

"No how I was going to end that, Bucky, but yeah. Something like that."

"We sure that you heightened emotional state won't faulter once we have Oxana?" Steve asked.

"Probably not. I'll still want to get her out of here. Finding her is just part of this, remember?" Our conversation stopped as a small army (I say small army, probably around ten people) clad in tactical gear, pointing weapons at as arrived, barring our way. I stopped, giving them a smile.

"Hey, so uh… we're a bit lost? Do you brave soldiers think you could show us the way to the science cells?"

"Put your hands behind your heads and get down on your knees!" Came the response. I sighed, shaking my head, half turning to look at Steve.

"Well, you can't say I didn't try. Now can I suffocate them?" That's when they started firing at us. I rolled my eyes, turning back to face the guys firing at us. Only then did they notice that my eyes were vivid green, their bullets having fallen to the ground about an inch before hitting us.

"You couldn't have had them stop a bit further away from us?" Bucky grumbled, pulling out a knife.

"What can I say, I have a flare for the dramatic. Speaking of flares…" I smile sweetly, eyes changing to orange, one of the soldiers starting to cry out in shock as his sleeve caught fire, his colleagues turning to watch him. Or to get out of his way. Bucky and Steve shake their heads, some of the colleagues paying enough attention to decide that maybe attacking us would be a good idea. Steve stepped forward to deal with a couple of them while Bucky took on another couple. The rest of them decided that maybe shooting at us was worth another try, or were trying to put out the fire on that one guy's arm. They weren't going to manage, but I wasn't about to tell them that. I threw my hands up, creating another barrier between us and the bullets, this time slightly further away, just to keep Bucky happy.

"Hey, Cap?"

"Little busy here!"

"You know I can fix that, yes? Easy little bit of air control, suck the oxygen from their lungs, make them all pass out?" He hit the second guy on the back of the head, and just like that both his guys were down. Bucky was done not long after. I swear, those guys were a little too good at fighting.

"Don't use your powers unless you absolutely have to, Tyra," He scolded, "We don't want you going crazy on us."

"Using my powers isn't what makes me crazy." I mutter, but not loud enough for them to hear me. They just go off and fight the remaining soldiers, leaving me leaning lazily against the wall. It's possible that I watched Bucky as he fought, most appreciatively. But I refuse to confirm that.

"You know, you could still help us out without your powers!" He called back, swiftly punching someone in the face. I shook my head.

"I was always better at fighting long distance," I told him, almost too conversationally for his liking as he continued to kick ass, "Surely you can remember the number of times you beat me up when Hydra was trying to teach me hand to hand combat?"

"Then pick up a gun and shoot someone!" I looked down at one of the fallen soldiers, at the gun slung over his back, contemplating some kind of reply along the lines of I was enjoying the show, then shook my head, bending down and neatly unclipping it from the man before raising it and looking down its sights. I hadn't actually held a gun for a little while. It felt weirdly natural. Almost nostalgic.

For a moment I just watched, trying to find my opening, then neatly let one bullet loose. It went straight into the soldier's leg, making them fall to the floor, Steve neatly punching them in the face. It was weird to see Steve fight without his shield. Bucky finished off the last guy. It was almost too easy. I think all of us realised that. I lowered the gun and held it out to Bucky.

"I prefer suffocating them." I told them, Bucky accepting the gun and quickly checking it over.

"You can't do that too much." Steve reminded me.

"Yeah, I know. Conserve my energy."

"Especially if you're going to be our way out of here." Bucky added. Alright, maybe he had a point about that.

"We need to keep moving," I tell them, pushing past, changing topic, "I'm surprised that Phoenix hasn't found us already. Probably waiting for the best time to ambush us." I mutter the last past to myself, hoping that I wasn't right. But I knew that it was a weak hope.

* * *

We found our way to the science cells. Except for one thing. They were more numerous than when I was being kept in Hydra facilities. And all of them had people in them. We shared looks, me feeling the dread building up inside me. And the fear. I could feel my hands starting to sweat as I looked around. I jumped slightly as someone threw themselves against the glass of the nearest cell, almost hissing at us. Their eyes were more serpentine, yellow-green scales protruding from patches of their skin, their tongue split down the middle. When they finally closed their mouth, their fangs came down to halfway down the chin. The nose almost reminded me of Voldemort.

"This is…"

"Try not to think about it," Bucky told me, "Some of these people seem too far gone to save." I nodded, knowing he was right. Even Steve didn't argue, Mr. No Man Left Behind had nothing to say. That should tell you exactly how bad this was.

"Tyra, you think you can break into the systems and find which cell has Oxana in it?" He asked, "And anyone else who we can do something for." I nodded, watching the nearest cells closely as I headed for the closest computer. About three of the cells had the snake people in them. There was another cell with a child in it whose skin looked like a dolphin's, sitting in a bath. He watched me with scared black eyes. He had no white in them. They were just black. I bit my lower lip, then set to work, typing away. Getting past their firewall was easy enough. That was, until PARROT decided to start fighting back.

"Oh, for…" I grumbled, growling at the screen, still typing away. But every time I did something, PARROT would undo it, or find another obstacle to put in my way.

"You mind hurrying it up a little?" Bucky asked, walking over to stand behind me, "There's no way that they don't know who we're after. It's only a matter of time before backup arrives."

"You don't need to tell me that, Barnes!" I snap back, "PARROT is being a bitch again. So, unless Steve wants to agree to go on a date with her, back off an let me work. Or you could start looking for our needle in this haystack of genes put through a blender." Bucky got the hint and went to watch the nearest door.

And then the doors to the hall slammed shut.

And the doors to the cells opened.

With us stuck inside. Naturally.

"Please tell me you didn't do that." Bucky told me, already raising the gun I gave him. I glared around at him.

"Why, in all the nine realms, would I trap us in here with –" I had to stop talking as one of the snake people lunged out at me, biting onto my armband, which I only just managed to lift my arm up in time to block. I scowled, punching them in the face before backhanding them, their fangs snapping. They whimpered, backing off, bleeding from their fang stumps. I didn't have time to celebrate, however, getting jumped from the back by something that felt a lot like granite. Very dusty granite. My eyes changed to a greyish brown, and whoever had grabbed me was letting me go. I turned to face them, taking in the confused look on their face.

"Don't worry," I assure them, "This is new to me, too." Then I make the golem-guy punch out at the next gene-blend that lunged at me, sending them flying into the cell opposite. Through the glass, which showered to the ground. I spun around, taking in the fact that Bucky was still alright, and that Steve was starting to struggle. I pulled one hand back before pushing it forward, a pulse of air shooting forward, knocking a couple of the hybrids off their feet, giving Steve the room he needed. He nodded his thanks.

"Sam, Nat, where are you?" I ask into my comms.

 _"Just reaching the main system now,"_ Nat replied, _"How are things your end?"_

"Bad! Turn on the sprinkler in the science cells!"

 _"What?"_

"I need more ammo!" I ducked under another snake person, tripping and rolling on the ground, coming face to face with… "A… duck… man?"

"What are you looking at?" He quacked at me. I stayed still for a moment, trying to comprehend the fact that a guy with a _duck_ face just talked to me.

"I… uh… sorry." And then I was hit across the face, sending me sprawling against the wall, holding my arms out in front of me to try and stop a panther from mauling me. I could feel the scratches on my arms, but lucky for me it didn't try biting me or scratching the parts of me less well defended. I closed my eyes and summoned another burst of air, sending it flying backwards, hitting its head against the ceiling before colliding with a couple of golems, sending them all stumbling backwards. I hurriedly pushed myself to my feet, just as water started falling from the ceiling. I smiled.

"Thanks, Nat."

 _"You're welcome. Now what do you want me to do from here?"_

"Try and find their weaknesses. And find Oxana. And maybe try to figure out how to turn off PARROT, or at least block her from the system."

 _"I think that last bit will need you, not me."_ I scowled, knowing that she was right, but didn't reply. Instead I just moved the water around so it was tangling around many of the hybrids, pulling them back into their cells.

"When I tell you to, close the cells."

 _"Which ones?"_

"All of them. If you're able to. PARROT might still be in charge." There was a half second of silence before Nat replied.

 _"I can tell you now that she is."_

"Great…" I duck another blow, "Cap, Barnes! I need you to keep them off me for a bit!"

"We can barely keep them off ourselves!" Bucky snapped, but they both forced their way through the crowds and did their best to keep the hybrids off me while I turned and started typing furiously away on the computer, keeping half my concentration on trying to force the hybrids back into their cells, or at least lower the number that Bucky and Steve had to fight off. Eventually I had to give up, though, PARROT causing too much trouble. I had to trust that they would be able to look after everything without me.

This mission was really turning to shit.

 _"You know you're not going to be able to disable me from there, Miss."_ PARROT told me, in that annoyingly cheerful voice of hers. Except this time, it was also annoyingly smug.

"Please tell me she's just trying to get a reaction out of you." Steve said. I shook my head, stepping away from the keyboard.

"She's completely locked me out of the system," I told him, "The bitch." I growled, turning around and facing the onslaught of hybrids stumbling over themselves to reach us, shaking my head. I slowly outstretched my hands, closing my eyes as I felt out the area before opening them so they were palm out, making a wall between us and the hybrids, my eyes turning a blue green as I then pulled more water out of the sprinkler. Bucky and Steve turned to look at me, seeing what I was doing. I'd forced as much air into our space as I could, flooding the rest of the area with the water. Except for the cells.

They hybrids raced back to their cells, all those except the aquatic species, that is. Not many of them seemed hell bent on attacking us, however, the little boy poking his head out from his cell and smiling at me. I smiled back, then looked to Bucky and Steve as I addressed Nat.

"Hey Nat, do you think you could find where Oxana is?" I asked, "Is PARROT letting you do that?"

 _"Strangely, yes, she is letting me. I think she's not that far from where you are now. About ten cells down, maybe?"_

"Can you hold this while we walk?" Steve asked, looking concerned. I nodded.

"It takes a bit, but yes. I can manage." We started walking, the boy not leaving out sides, happily swimming along beside us. He was a cute kid. I wondered what would happen to him.

As we walked, I kept an eye out in the other cells. None of the others were children. Why had Kuznetsov told me that most of those experimented on had died? Or… how many had they experimented on? The thought made me feel sick, making my powers faulter for a moment. That's when I saw the big, tree-like organism. I stopped walking, Steve and Bucky stopping beside me.

"What is it?" Steve asked as my eyes narrowed.

"I…" Said the tree. My eyes narrowed more.

"Don't you dare." I told it.

"Am…"

"I said, don't you dare." An arrow of water shot out and went straight through him. And that's when I recognised his face below the bark growing as a sort of helmet around it.

Hauer.

Well, surprise surprise. Kuznetsov had lied to me about Hauer being dead.

Well, he would be soon. The water reached up and wrapped itself around his throat, squeezing gently, another tendril finding its way down into his lungs.

"Tyra, what are you doing?" Steve asked.

"You remember Hauer, right?" I asked, "Well, he's insulting a good friend of mine."

"So you're killing him?"

"No, I'm killing him to put him out of his misery," I told him, "He's in pain."

"How do you know?" I nodded at Hauer, lifting a hand and pointing at his face.

"If you had bark growing out of you, if your bones were stretching and changing shape, if your muscles were literally pulling themselves and changing to wood, wouldn't you be in pain?" Steve didn't say anything. I never liked Hauer, so I'd be lying if I said this kill was strictly a mercy kill. But surprisingly, part of my motives were merciful.

We only carried on once Hauer crumpled to the ground and I was certain he was dead, the boy watching for a moment before, as happily as before, swimming after us.


End file.
